


STARK Contrast

by NoManFinnlander12345



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aging, Baby Peter Parker, Bed-Wetting, De-Aged Peter Parker, Multi, Nightmares, No Sex, Omorashi, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Is a Good Daddy, time travel??, vomit warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 27,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22041346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoManFinnlander12345/pseuds/NoManFinnlander12345
Summary: Peter is working in the lab with Tony when Peter's "secret" experimental time machine to go back in time to save May unexpectedly goes wrong. Tony is then stuck working with baby Peter (well 2.5 year old Peter) to fix the machine and get him back to his teenage self.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Comments: 30
Kudos: 242





	1. Introduction

“Mr. Stark, can you PLEASE come check my calculations now?” Peter interrogated. “Jesus kid, can you please wait at least 5 minutes before asking me that again” Tony snapped. “Yes, sure, sorry sir” Peter said while hanging his head to stare at the floor. Tony looked over to see his 15 year old intern Peter red faced, trying to hold in the tears showing in his eyes. 

‘Ah fuck stark, way to make the kid cry again’ He really needed to get the lab intensity to a reasonable level when working in the lab with an overly emotional teenager. Especially one whose aunt just died only about 13ish months ago. 

“I’m really sorry Peter, I was just in my head and overly focused on what I was doing with this new suit upgrade.” Tony sighed. He noticed that Peter never lifted his head to even acknowledge his apology. “Peter?”Peter slowly raised his head up and Tony noticed that his tears had finally begun to fall and his eyes were getting red rimmed. “I said I’m sorry I snapped at you, I was too focused but that gives me no reason to yell at you. How about we go back upstairs and get lunch.”Peter tilted his head like a confused puppy and stared at Tony like he had horns growing out of his head. “Lunch?” Peter questioned. “Yes Peter, lunch. You act like we don't eat 6+ meals a day to keep up with your metabolism and sugar cravings.” Tony smirked. “But, Mr. Stark” Peter said while he had his head still cocked to one side to try and figure out if the man was joking or not. “Its 9pm at night?” Tony looked up at the clock and noted that, yes, it was indeed 9pm. 

‘How was is 9pm? It felt like they just got down there after their breakfast and workout with the rest of the team.’ “Well Jesus kid, let's get you upstairs and ready to go back to Ted’s huh, can’t have you out late on a Sunday” Tony uttered. Tony felt especially bad that he yelled at Peter for interrupting him again since Peter last asked around 3pm. He’ll just have to remember to check it when he heads back down to the lab later. “Yes sir, that sounds good.” Peter always hated this part, even though he loved Ned and his family, he couldn't help but feel sad every time he had to say goodbye to Mr. Stark. The tower was his home and he really felt comfortable around Mr. Stark and appreciated how he let him work in the lab still, even after May died. It was a nice outlet for him and he looked up to the man and the Team like they were his real family. I mean, Ned is also his family, but it was different. 

As Peter was getting into the elevator to head home with Happy driving, Tony yelled out, “Oh and I can check your calculations later kiddo, I promise. And I’ll leave a note if anything was wrong with any of it for you to correct.'' “Thanks Mr. Stark, see you tomorrow again?” Peter asked with pleading eyes. “Absolutely underoos, Happy will pick you up from school.” Tony rushed out as the elevator closed with Peter and Happy in it. 

Tony walked over to the kitchen counter to grab himself another cup of coffee. He sighed to himself after ruminating on the idea that Peter literally had no relatives left. ‘Maybe he could finally build Peter that guest room?’ Another project added to his long list of projects. Tony slowly made his way back down to the lab. It was still early and Sunday’s were his days to relax with Peter in the lab. They would just tinker around with whatever they wanted to try and keep a healthier balance of work while maintaining an outlet to destress. Tony walked over to Peter’s lab bench and saw his yellow notebook flipped open to the page Peter was last working on. He took a lot longer looking at the cartoons drawn on the page before and the torn out shopping list May had written when she would take Peter shopping with her. Tony really missed May. She actually ended up being a good friend to Tony and they often talked a lot longer than expected when Peter was getting picked up at the end of the night. She had this maternal horea that somehow got Tony to speak about whatever was on his mind. He may have been a little embarrassed about some of the things he revealed to her, but it was soothing and he really missed those talks. After about 10 minutes of ruminating and looking through Peter’s drawings, he finally made his way back to the calculations he was supposed to check. They were scattered all around the page and Tony had a really hard time trying to figure out what Peter was trying to make but he figured it was just something for his Spidey-suit. He checked the jumbled work and didn’t see any major errors, just a few sign errors where he changed a plus to a minus. After checking the kid’s work, he made his way back over to his bench, where his chaotic thoughts started to invade him again. He started to tinker away until the thoughts quieted down and he was back in his groove. He spent the rest of the night and early parts of the morning working on his new upgrade for his suit.


	2. The Lab Incident

Peter walked out of school to see Happy standing next to the car. Peter smiled and waved, but Happy just stood there with his sunglasses on not moving. ‘So it’s going to be this kinda ride today’, Peter mumbled under his breath. “Something you wanna say kid?” Happy said towering over him. Peter gulped, wondering if he had somehow heard what Peter said under his breath. “Nope, just thinking out loud Mr. Hogan” Peter sheepishly said while staring at his feet before Happy grunted and moved around the driver's seat. Peter never said another word the rest of the ride to the tower, he wasn’t in the mood. He gladly put his head on the cool glass and closed his eyes. 

The trip seemed to fly by with Peter in deep thought over his new invention. Before he knew it, they were in the carpark and heading up the elevator. Peter exited the elevator and walked over to the refrigerator to get his after school snack: a yogurt and a pb&j on a tortilla. He took a seat at the counter and munched on his food before Tony came around the corner looking at his Starkpad. 

“Hey kid, how was school? Learn anything new?” Tony automatically replied. “Yeah it was alright Mr. Stark. First of all I had first period and I punched my teacher right in his face. Then I scaled the wall of my English class and webbed everyone to the chalkboard. Next I ditched school to go to the candy store down the road and ate a REAL LIVE baby.” Peter said nonchalantly. Tony was mhmming the entire time. “Oh and I threw up in the back seat of your car by accident.” Tony’s head shot up like an alarm had just gone off. “What? Which one? How much? Oh jeez kid I just had all the seats dry cleaned!” Tony whined. “That’s the only part you heard from all of that?!” Peter giggled out. “What? What did I miss?” Tony asked now paying full attention to Peter. “Nothing Mr. Stark, I was just joking. Can we go down to the lab now? I have to leave early to help babysit Ned’s siblings tonight.” Peter questioned. “Sure kid, everything’s just how you left it. Oh and I checked your calculations. What are you planning to make? It seems pretty advanced and complicated.” Tony said quirking his eyebrow. “It’s nothing Mr. Stark, just something to keep me busy.” Peter said while heading to the elevator. “Alright Pete, I’ll meet you down in a bit, I’m just sending out a few more emails.” 

Peter took the time alone in the lab as his opportunity to calibrate his machine and checked that he corrected all his calculations that Tony had fixed for him. The machine itself was small, about the size of a microwave and was composed of mostly scrap material from the lab. Peter just needed a strong enough power source to supply his invention for it to work. With Tony out of the room, Peter was able to access more “restricted” materials that Tony had around. Nothing seemed to interest Peter enough until he remembered the gift Tony had given him a few months after starting the internship. Peter dashed to his lab station and started rifling through his drawers until he came across the glass box with one of Tony’s old arc reactors. He was going to make it into a nightlight or something, but he just never got around to it. Peter took out the reactor and connected it to his machine and flipped the switch. The turbine started whirring and the time machine lit up like a Christmas tree. “Yes! Yes! I can’t believe it worked!” Peter screamed over the noise with tears of happiness in his eyes. He turned the dial to the day Aunt May got in her "accident" and strapped the watch that accompanied the machine that would envelope him in the time belt to transport him to the past. He pushed the big red button on the front panel of the machine with eagerness and closed his eyes. “I’m coming May!” Peter screamed. 

As soon as the button was pushed, something inside the machine snapped and hot blue sparks exploded from the machine, throwing Peter to the opposite wall, along with the remaining pieces of the failed time machine. 

Peter came to 5 minutes later, he moaned and rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. He hit his head really hard and could feel blood dripping from his ears. He lifted a hand and wiped the blood away and brought it to his face to see if it was a lot or a little. Peter yelped when he saw his hand covered in blood. It wasn’t the blood that surprised him, it was the fact that his hand was a quarter of the size that he remembered it being. He sat up slowing with his eyes closed and then slowly peeked out from between his chubby blood covered fingers. He found that his feet were only a foot away, rather than a couple feet they were supposed to be. “Oh no” Peter gasped and put his hands over his mouth. His voice was so high pitched. He must have somehow set the date so that it went back to 13 years ago, not 13 months. ‘Mr. Stark is going to kill me. Fuck! Mr. Stark is going to fire me from my internship!!’ Peter thought, working himself into a panic. The overwhelming feeling to sit down on the floor and cry was so intense, it shocked Peter into problem solving mode. “Jarvis? Where is Mr. Stark now?” Peter asked, secretly hoping to have a few more minutes to make a plan or at least clean the lab a little more. “Coming down the elevator right now master Peter. He heard the explosion and I have notified that you were in need of assistance.” 

Peter went into full on panic mode and his mind told him the most reasonable thing to do would be to hide. Peter scrambled to his feet and waddled with his teenage sized clothes under the lab bench, pulling the stool in to conceal him in the shadows. He put his tiny hands over his mouth to try and muffle his strained and erratic breathing so Tony wouldn't hear him. 

The lab doors opened and Tony gawked at what he saw. There was debris and metal scraps all over the place. Some of the papers closest to the machine had lit on fire and were slowly burning themselves out, including Peters notebook of calculations. “Peter?! Peter where are you buddy?” Tony yelled out. No answer came as Peter cowered underneath the bench. He noticed that his little body was trembling and he had tears streaming down his face. “Jarvis, where is Peter? Is he hurt? Did he leave the lab?” Tony asked anxiously. “Peter is hiding sir, underneath one of the lab benches. He is afraid you will be mad at him.” Jarvis replied in his normal sing songy voice. Tony walked over to Peter’s work area and noticed that he could see big brown eyes staring back at him in the darkness. “Peter buddy I’m not mad. Stuff goes wrong all the time in the lab. I shouldn't have left you down here by yourself for that long anyways.” Tony tried to reassure. He could hear sniffling and pulled the stool out of the way to see Peter and see if he had sustained any injuries. But instead of Peter, Tony found a brown, curly haired baby in a pile of enormous clothes on the floor. Tony stared at the small chubby boy trying to wrap his head around who was sitting in front of him. “Peter?” Tony asked with a bit of terror in his voice. “Yes sir, Mr. Stark. I don’t know exactly what happened.” Little peter squeaked out in his high pitched baby voice. “Are you hurt? Does anything hurt on you?” Tony asked concerned. He could see a small trail of blood from the side of Peter’s head coming from his ears. “No not really, just confused and dazed sir.” Peter remarked with eyebrows furrowed. His head hurt somewhat, but his advanced healing was kicking in and the pain was slowly dissipating. “Well, let’s get you upstairs and cleaned up and try to figure this mess out hmm?” Tony was still in shock, not knowing whether he should pick up Peter and carry him or allow the kid to walk himself. “Yes sir, that would be good.” Peter said not making a move to get up himself. “Uhh. Did you want to try and walk yourself, or would you want me to carry you?” Tony asked awkwardly. Peter didn't reply, but instead stood up holding the bundle of gigantic clothing around his body and shuffled out. The shirt hung on his torso like a dress and the pants and boxers had to be held, unless he wanted to flash Tony. He slowly shuffled himself to the elevator with Tony in tow. “Jarvis, call Bruce and tell him I need his help on something. Tell him it’s urgent.” Tony said still staring down the miniature version of the kid he just saw a few hours ago. They made it to the main floor and Peter hopped up onto the couch with Tony in the chair opposite of him, staring him down. 

They waited there until Dr. Banner came up the elevator. “Tony, what’s the…” Bruce stopped mid sentence as he saw a small child on the couch.


	3. Impromtu Convention

“Tony? Who’s baby is that? What are you even doing with a baby??” Bruce questioned anxiously, not taking his eyes off the little one. “That is Peter, Bruce. There was an accident in the lab and somehow Peter turned himself into a baby.” Bruce’s eyes widened as he walked over to the pint sized kid and kneeled in front of him. Peter waved at Bruce and Bruce took notice of how small his hand was and the baby fat rolls still on his arms. 

“Hi Doctor Banner.” Peter said quietly. 

“Peter, what on god's green earth did you get yourself into?” Bruce sighed. Tears started streaming from Peter’s eyes again and he couldn’t help but let out a sob. “I twied to save Aunt May.” Peter sobbed into his knees. Tony and Bruce shared a look of concern from the way Peter was starting to pronounce his words. 

Tony finally spoke up, “What do you mean tried to save May, Peter?”

Peter hiccuped and wiped the snot running out of his nose on his chubby arm. “I-I made a machine to go back in time to the day Aunty May got hurt, but some-somefing went w-wong and it bwoke!” Peter choked out. “I didn’t mean to r-ruin things and do ‘dis, it was an a-a-waccident!”

Bruce looked to Tony, unsure of what to do or say exactly. He or Tony didn’t think actual a kid like Peter would have been able to create a machine to travel back in time. He was too inexperienced with that type of technology. “It’s okay buddy, we can figure this out and get you back to normal.” Bruce began, trying to calm the sobbing toddler down. “Sure bubby, it shouldn’t be too hard to replicate what you made to turn you back to normal,” Tony added in. “I’ll run down to the lab to get your notebook and we can take a look at it. Bruce, in the meantime, can you check Pete over and make sure he’s alright from the explosion? Also, try to carbon date the kid so we know what we’re working with.”  
Tony made his way down to the lab, thankful that he and Bruce were the only ones in the tower today. Everyone else on the team left in the afternoon on a mission. Tony wasn’t needed and gladly took the time off to relax with Peter. But here they were. Not relaxing whatsoever. 

As Tony was rummaging through the lab looking for Peter’s yellow notebook, Bruce was checking over Peter and his injuries. Peter stared back at Bruce with his big brown eyes. Bruce noted that Peter seemed to still be in his 15 year old mindset, but as soon as Bruce pulled out his stethoscope to listen to Peter’s heart and lungs, Peter seemed to snap into a younger mindset. Peter saw the shiny stethoscope and reached out for it with grabby hands giggling as he did so. A second later, Peter seemed to snap back and realize what he was doing and put his hands into his lap. He sat through the rest of the examination with blushed cheeks from the embarrassment. 

Tony looked through everything and could not find the notebook anywhere in site. He found little mounds of ash on the floor and countertops that he assumed must have been some sort of paper that burned when the explosion happened. ‘Fuck’ Tony thought. ‘I have no idea what to do with a baby until I get this figred out.’ Tony sat at the stool and put his head in his hands. ‘Maybe I should bring him to Ned’s and explain to Donna what happened. She has enough kids to take care of anyways. She’ll know what to do.’ Tony shook his head thinking. ‘No, she’s not even home and Peter was supposed to leave early tonight.’ Tony scrunched his eyes shut and sighed. “Jarvis, call Donna Leeds.”

“Hello? Tony? Is something wrong?” Mrs. Leeds asked anxiously?

“Hi Donna, sorry to interrupt your evening but uhm… I know Peter was supposed to help babysit the other kids tonight, but I have an emergency conference to attend and I’d really like Peter to join me for the intern experience.” Tony said in his most convincing tone he could muster. 

“Oh, sure Tony, that’s no problem. Ned has enough experience babysitting his siblings by himself, Peter just offered to help. Such a good egg, that one. I can let Ned know that Peter won’t be helping out tonight. How long were you planning on kidnapping him for so I don’t stress Ned out with unanswered questions?” 

“Well, we are leaving tonight and the conference is the whole week. I assume he will be back next Sunday evening. And thanks Donna, sorry again for interrupting your evening. Say hello to Ted for me when you see him next.”

They said their goodbyes and Tony hung up the phone. Tony praised himself for the quick and convincing deception skills he’s acquired after years of faking smiles and his attention to major business leaders and unimportant people. Tony made his way back up the elevator to the communal floor where Bruce was checking over Peter. 

Peter was sitting on the couch still playing with a Starkpad Bruce had given him. He looked up when he heard the elevator ding. The way Tony came out of the elevator, Peter knew he didn’t find what he was looking for, but found he wasn’t very upset. Instead, he felt really happy and giddy to see Tony. Tony looked over at him a little confused and sat down next to Peter. Bruce came from around the corner and was looking over some research on another Starkpad trying to figure out exactly what happened. Peter sat on his knees with his feet underneath his bottom and started bouncing around Tony. Tony looked over at Peter and noticed he was bouncing starting to climb over Tony with his dress of a shirt over his head. 

“Peter, bud, what are you doing?” Tony asked looking down at the small boy. Peter just looked up and giggled and put his finger in his mouth. “Pwaying” peter giggled out. 

“Oh I see” Tony chuckled out. “Bruce, what’s the news, what’s happened to him physiologically?”

Bruce looked up from his Starkpad. “Nothing other than he somehow managed to transform himself into a 2-3 year old kid. Nothing has changed other than his body reversed in age to how he was at that age, most likely. He still has his powers and his teenage mindset, well for the most part.” Bruce said looking at the jumping bean in front of him. “I need to run some blood tests and maybe a brain scan, but for now, he is a healthy baby.”

Tony frowned. That is not what he wanted to hear, he wanted answers. Bruce stuck his nose back into the Starkpad and continued scrolling through article after article. “Tony? I’m going to head back to my floor and try to find an answer. I can come back tomorrow morning and do the tests, but I think it’d be best to get the kid something to eat and in bed.” Bruce said while walking to the elevator. 

That statement got Tony’s attention. Tony has never taken care of a baby before. Hell, he’s never held a baby before. He had no idea what to do with Peter. The look on his face seemed to speak to Bruce indirectly. “Don’t worry Tones, Peter still is in there, I’m sure he can help with the process and get himself adjusted just fine for bed.”

Tony nodded and Bruce disappeared into the elevator. Tony stood there for a few more seconds and finally turned to Peter who was still sitting on the couch, the kid’s big brown eyes just staring back at him. 

“Well kiddo, I guess we’re having a slumber party huh.” Tony exclaimed sounding defeated. 

Peter smiled and lifted his arms for Tony to grab him up. Tony didn’t realize what Peter wanted and instead turned to the kitchen to make something quick for dinner. Peter frowned and crossed his arms. 

“What do you want to eat, Pete?” Tony yelled out opening the fridge to see if Steve prepped anything for the week like he normally did. “We have some sort of vegetable casserole, lasagna, turkey with potatoes, and probably week old pizza back here,” Tony strained while reaching his hand to the very back of the fridge, pulling out a crushed Pizza box. 

Peter thought over his options, but ultimately just wanted a banana and some juice. Tony was happy enough not to have to deal with meal issues tonight and warmed up the pizza in the microwave for himself. Tony plopped down next to Peter on the couch, kicking up his feet on the coffee table, and munched on a few bites of stale pizza. Peter wrangled with his banana until he ultimately popped it by squeezing it too hard. Mushy banana spilled over his hands, but he didn’t seem to mind. Tony watched with disgust as Peter licked the goop off his hands and finished his juice box. Peter held his hands out in front of him and didn’t put them down or in his lap. Even baby Peter was repulsed by sticky sensations or germs. Tony took that as his cue to get Peter ready for bed. 

“Let’s head to the bathroom to get you ready for bed Pete.” Tony said looking down at the brown eyes staring back into his.

Peter nodded, but made no movements to get up and off the couch. 

“Would you like me to carry you or do you want to walk yourself?” Tony asked, expecting the same response as last time. 

Peter scooched to the edge of the couch and plopped off with his bundle of clothes around him. He went to hold his pants up, but stopped when he realized his sticky situation. He stared down at the pants, trying to figure out what to do. Tony could literally hear the gears turning in the kid’s head as he watched Peter try to maneuver himself to grab the clothing without actually touching them. 

“Uh..I’m just going to pick you up, okay Peter? I know it might be weird but the bathroom is just down the hall.” Tony said while scooping Peter up under his armpits and holding him at arm's length. The pants and underwear around Peter’s ankles slipped completely off, but thankfully his shirt covered him like a dress so nothing was showing. The kid was surprisingly light, but Tony wished he held the kid facing the same way as him, so he didn’t have to have Peter stare at him as they made themselves down the hallway. Tony could see the blush rising to the kid’s cheeks and Tony knew older Peter was with him at the moment. When they got into the bathroom, Tony sat Peter onto the counter next to the sink. He gave Peter a bar of soap to wash his hands while he left the room to grab a new shirt for Peter to sleep in. 

“Hey Pete, here’s the smallest shirt I could find of mine. Unfortunately it’s even bigger than the one you’re wearing right now but as long as it stays on, it won’t matter. We can get you new clothes tomorrow morning when Bruce comes to do the tests on you.” Tony said handing the small boy the Black Sabbath t-shirt. “I’m going out of the room so you can have some privacy while you change.” Tony said closing the bathroom door behind him. 

“‘Ony?” Peter squeaked out. 

Tony came back through the door after his cue was called. Peter had his arm and head through the head hole, while his other arm through one of the arm holes. “You look like you’re ready for a frat toga party, bud.” Tony laughed after seeing Peter’s attempt to get changed. Tony helped get Peter resituated and held the bathroom door open for Peter to exit the bathroom. Tony lead Peter to the window seat in his room where he made a makeshift bed for Peter to sleep in for tonight. He barricaded the edge with pillows to keep him from rolling and falling over the ledge in the middle of the night. Tony picked Peter up and deposited him into the nest of blankets and pillows. 

“I’m going back down to the lab to try and find some answers for your situation.” Tony said as he turned and began to head back down to the lab. Peter was still sitting up and watching the man as he stood near the door, ready to turn off the light. “Ask Jarvis to call for me if you need something later, okay?” Tony flicked off the lights and Peter buried himself under the covers. 

Tony swears he heard a small “night daddy” come from the room, but he can’t be sure. Maybe he was just getting freaked out by how instinctual some of the things he was feeling and doing were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to get the first few chapters out so that you all could get the feel of how the plots heading. Leave me comments or questions or whatever if you want!


	4. Nightmares

“PLEASE AUNT MAY! I came back for you, you have to come with me so I can save you!” Peter screamed, tears running down his face. He was running along rooftops to try and keep up with his frantic aunt below. A group of about 5 people and a large black van were chasing her down alley after alley. Peter’s web shooters long empty after taking out the other 20 something unidentified men. He struggled to keep up and his legs began to feel like they were made of lead. Peter found a fire escape that reached down far enough for him to jump the rest of the way to the ground. It took all his energy to move and he cursed while frantically making his way down to the last step of the fire escape. He hopped down but it felt like he was a piece of paper floating to the ground below. He could see his aunt cornered ahead of him and he used the last bit of strength he had to lunge forward and tackle one of the assailants. But somehow, he was transported in front on May, holding her as she bled in Peter’s arms. Peter sobbed while holding pressure against her wound. Peter could feel the warm blood soaking through his Spidey-suit and the smell of iron filling his nostrils. Aunt May smiled up at him and caressed his cheek before her arm slowly contracted. “I didn’t tell them Peter. Your secret is still safe, my love.” May choked out before her breathing slowly stopped. Peter screamed out and found himself sitting upright screaming in a pitch black room. 

Once he realized he was in the tower. Peter began to relax, until he felt his t-shirt cling to him. He scrunched his eyes shut praying this was all still part of the dream. He reached his small baby hand down and felt the wet sheets and t-shirt stuck to himself. He let out a sob of frustration and hopped up off the make-shift bed to try and hide the evidence. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Sir, Peter seems to be in distress and I suggest you make your way to his whereabouts to assist in the problem.” Jarvis spoke out suddenly, making Tony jump. Tony didn’t even bother to ask what was wrong, he assumed the boy had fallen out of bed and hit his head again. 

‘Fuck, I knew I should have added the side bars instead of pillows to the bed’ Tony thought. He made his way up the lab to his room and pushed open the door. He was surprised to not see Peter in or near the bed. However, the bed was stripped of the blankets and Tony could see small feet hiding behind the curtain near the opposite window. He pulled back the maroon linen to see a tear streaked peter holding his blankets to his chest and staring at the ground. 

“What’s up bud? Did you fall out of bed?” Tony asked staring at the curly haired boy. Peter didn’t respond verbally and instead just shook his head. “Well, what happened?” Tony asked a little more confused. Peter still didn’t respond and continued to stare at his feet. “Are you going to make me guess? To be honest, I’m tired and I don’t want to play 20 questions right now, Pete.” Tony said a little more irritated. 

Peter finally looked up at and held out his blankets for Tony to grab. Tony grabbed the blankets, still confused, until he felt that they were wet. He looked back at the kid who had his head downcast again and saw the wet patch that spanned from his waist to the bottom of the shirt. 

“Ah shit kid, uhh it’s no big deal, we can fix this. Let’s just go to the bathroom and get you cleaned up.” Tony said somewhat awkwardly. 

Peter sniffled and followed Tony into the bathroom. Tony began to run the bath and turned to Peter. “Did you want me to help you wash up? Or can you clean yourself?” Tony questioned with his face turning bright red. 

“I can do it myself,” Peter responded face brightening to the same color as Tony’s. 

Tony turned to grab another shirt from his room and left the miniscule boy to attend to himself in the tub. Tony took his sweet time to give the boy privacy, until he heard a thud and a splash come from the bathroom. Rushing to the door, Tony knocked before entering to see a naked Peter facedown in the water. Tony’s heart rate spiked and immediately went to retrieve the little one from the water. Tony began to panic as he lifted the tiny body from the water, only to realize that the body was limp. 

“Peter, baby, wake up for me.” Tony huffed out breathlessly as he laid the small body onto the floor. Tony put his ear to Peter’s mouth and chest to see if the kid was breathing. Thankfully he was, and Tony let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. As soon as Tony pulled away, Peter began to whimper. 

“Peter? Peter? Can you hear me buddy?” Tony asked as Peter’s big brown eyes opened to stare back into Tony’s furrowed face. 

“I sowry ‘Ony. I slip.” Peter cried, new tears coming to his eyes. 

“Oh buddy, it’s okay, it's okay, let’s get you dressed and checked over. You must have hit your head on the way in.” Tony said moving to grab the t-shirt he dropped on the floor. 

After Peter was dressed back in an oversized t-shirt, Tony assessed his head and eye movements to make sure he didn’t have a concussion. Either way, Bruce said he still had his powers, right? Tony set Peter down on his bed and looked over at the clock. It was 4am and Tony hadn’t slept at all, not that he would, but Peter probably should. Tony debated where to put Peter down for bed this time. He could just let Peter sleep in his bed since he planned on going back to the lab anyway. Tony figured that would be the easiest option, and Tony’s bed was enormous, so unless Peter rolled 6 feet in either direction, he wouldn’t fall off the bed. 

“Alright Peter. You are going to sleep in my bed for the rest of the night. I’m going back down to the lab to work on getting you back to normal. Bruce should be here around 9am, so I can get you then, or you can go watch TV until I come back up.” 

Peter didn’t reply, he just stared at Tony and waved goodbye and buried himself under the covers. Tony walked out of the room, reminding Jarvis to alert him if Peter needed him again. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peter woke up as the sun started to peak through the blinds. He buried his face in the pillows and inhaled the calming scent of expensive linens and Tony. He was just about to sit up, when he felt him lower half grow warm. Confused, he pulled the covers up to see a dark yellow liquid fill the gap between his legs. ‘WTF?! I’m awake but I don't feel that I am peeing! What is wrong with me?!’ Peter jumped up, liquid still trickling down his legs as he tried to scrambled out of the ocean of bed. As he got to the edge of the bed, he hopped off and fell onto his butt. At this point, he had stopped peeing so he jumped up and surveyed the damage. The center of the bed was a darker shade of grey than the rest of the bed sheets, and a small dark trail led to the edge of the bed where Peter tried to scramble off. 

“Master Peter, you are in distress, shall I call Master Tony for assistance?” Javis spoke, making Peter yelp with fright from the sudden loud noise. 

“NO! No, don’t call T-Tony, I can take care of it.” Peter squeaked out in a panic. The little boy clambered onto the bed, pulling each of the corners of the sheet off the bed before tugging it off onto the floor with him. Leaving the sheets in a pile on the floor, Peter shuffled into the bathroom and pulled the wet t-shirt off his tiny body. Peter tried to reach the tub to draw himself a bath, but he was too short to reach the handles. Before he could turn to find a stool or chair to stand on, he heard the elevator ding from down the hallway. Panic filled his body and Peter went into autopilot, running butt-naked back into the bedroom and shoving himself and the wet bed sheets underneath the bed with him into the furthest corner. 

The bedroom door squeaked open, and Peter could see Tony’s shoes entering the and stop in front of the bed. Peter held his breath as he saw Tony kneel and lift up the bed skirt, finding a naked toddler huddled in the corner of the room. 

“Peter, I’m not mad.” Tony began. “Jarvis blew your cover and told me what happened.”

“I’m sorry Tony.” Peter said, obviously having made it back to his teen mindset. “I didn’t even know I had to go, I couldn’t tell I was even going!” Peter spit out disgusted in himself. 

“I know bud, it’s not your fault. Bruce just got here, let’s go meet him and he can help us straighten this mess out.” 

Peter didn’t move a muscle, and instead curled in on himself hiding his face more into him arms below him. “But, I’m naked. I don’t want you to see.” Peter said, face blushing in the shadows.  
“Oh uhh, I can put out another T-shirt and leave for you to change. Just meet us out by the elevator when you’re done.” Tony said, back on his feet, grabbing another T-shirt from his drawer. “Don’t worry about the sheets or the other wet clothes, we can take care of them later.”

Peter snuck out from underneath the bed, and quickly put on the new shirt. His face burned as he saw the bare bed on his way out of the room. Standing at the elevator, Bruce greeted little Peter and they made thier way into the elevator and to the Medibay where Bruce had set up all the materials he needed to draw Peter’s blood and scan his brain. An examination tabletop was situated at Peter’s level, and Bruce motioned for him to hop on. Peter did as he was told, and lied down on the cold metal surface. 

“Okay Peter, I’m going to do another quick examination of your body. I do need to pull up the shirt to take a look at and listen to your abdomen. I understand you’re naked underneath, and I’m sure this is embarrassing, but I have seen the rest of the team naked dozens of times, and they understand that I am here as a doctor to help them recover and make sure they are fixed up adequately.” 

Peter nodded and closed his eyes, to save himself the embarrassment of looking either of the men in the eyes. Once Bruce was done, Peter sat up to have his blood drawn. Bruce rolled peter’s cuff up and alcoholed off his forearm. Bruce just happened to look over and see Tony pacing in the corner of the room, looking like he was about to be sick. 

“Tone’s how about you wait out in the hall, and I can call you in when everything is done.” Bruce sighed. 

Tony didn’t protest and almost ran out of the room. Bruce turned back to Peter and explained the procedure of drawing blood, which Peter had experienced numerous times. He never had a problem with them. Before his powers, he was normally too out of it to realize where he was and what was happening. Now, it was more for Bruce’s research to understand Peter’s DNA and healing factors better, but was no worse than a paper cut. 

As soon as the needle hit Peter’s arm, tears flooded his vision and he let out a scream. Bruce immediately stopped moving, afraid he may be hit a nerve. 

“It doesn’t hurt hardly at all, Dr. Banner, I don’t know why I’m even crying” Peter managed to blubber out. 

Bruce let out a sigh of relief. “Don’t worry kid, I think it might be due to your brain trying to understand that it is in a 2.5 year old’s body. You brain can’t process what happened and is confused, so you might see some regressive behaviors starting to occur.”

Once a few vials of blood were gathered, and Tony entered the room again, Peter was set up to scan his brain to see if any damage was done to Peter’s brain in the incident. Bruce finished the brain scan, and Peter hopped off the tabletop. 

“I have to run the results through the computer system to see if I find anything out of the ordinary. But to be honest Tony, Peter looks like a perfectly healthy baby boy. I can’t find anything physically wrong with him. Is there anything else you can give me?” Bruce asked turning to Tony.  
Tony frowned. He did expect Bruce to find something, anything, on any of the tests run. “Well, he wet the bed twice, last night. Said he couldn’t tell he had to pee or even knew he was peeing.” Tony announced, causing Peter’s face to flame again. 

“Hmm, well that seems normal as I tried to explain to Pete earlier. He may develop some regressive behaviors since his mind is trying to cope from going from a 15 year old body and mind to a 2 year old body. I wouldn’t be surprised if he can’t control his bladder yet, most kids can’t at his age.” Bruce stated, still looking at the scans he took of Peter’s brain. “You should get him some actual clothing and maybe some pull ups while he’s in this state, just to make things easier on you both.”

Tony thanked Bruce and turned to move to the elevator with Peter. “Jarvis, order all the supplies necessary to take care of a 2.5 year old boy.” Tony commanded. Jarvis obliged in his typical sing song voice. 

As they made their way back to the communal floor, Peter leaned into Tony’s leg. Tony could tell the emotions and tests had taken a lot out of the kid. “Peter? Did you want to take a nap when we get back to my floor?” Tony asked, looking down at the top of the curly haired boy. 

“No, not a baby.” Peter said, straightening himself and crossing his arms. 

“Psh, I know Pete, but you seem tired. How about you just lay down for a bit on the couch then while I make us lunch and get some stuff straightened out, okay?” Tony chuckled. 

Peter responded by grunting slightly and leaning back into Tony’s legs. As they got to the communal floor, Tony helped shuffle Peter to the couch, who fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Tony, being the genius he is, thought ahead to stuff some pillows underneath Peter’s lower half to try and save a bigger clean up later. Tony busied himself in the kitchen, making Peter and himself some grilled cheese. Even though Steve’s pre-made meals were in the fridge, Tony was glad to focus on something other than his exhausted body and rampant thoughts. 

About an hour later, Jarvis announced that Peter’s supplies had arrived and were coming up the elevator. Tony was shocked when 7 enormous boxes came into view as the doors opened. Tony sighed and set about pulling the boxes out, one by one, and opening them to see what was inside. The first box contained mostly child sized kitchen items, such as plates, bowls, utensils, cups, bottle like cups, and some foods that young children were known to enjoy. The next few boxes held clothes, diapers, pull-ups, and other linens. Another box had the components to put together what seemed like a toddler bed and a high chair for the kitchen. The next two boxes had a stroller and other miscellaneous supplies that didn’t really fit in any of those other categories. The last box however, was filled to the brim with toys. Tony actually found himself amused when he pulled out the entire Avengers team, in plushie form. 

Tony looked over at Peter lying on the couch. His thumb had made its way into his mouth and a few of his curls had fallen in front of his eyes. ‘Cute’, Tony thought. ‘Wait? When have I ever found anything cute?’ Tony frowned. ‘Damn kid, making me soft already.’

Standing up, Tony decided to check Peter and see if he had had an accident yet, and if not, put him in a pull-up or diaper right away. Praising the heavens, Tony found the couch still dry so he gently tapped the boy to wake him up. Peter’s eyes scrunched and then opened slowly. 

“Hi ‘Ony” Peter smiled up at the man. Tony smiled back and sat down next to the toddler. 

“Feel better buddy?” Tony asked. Peter nodded and leaned into Tony’s side, still trying to fight the sleepiness from creeping back in. 

“Well, some surprises came for you while you were napping.” Tony said. 

Peter’s eyes lit up when he finally registered the 7 huge boxes scattered around the room. He immediately hopped off the couch and went over to each, slowly losing his smile and slowing by the time he hit the 5th box. He turned to Tony, and Tony could see the boy’s eyes clouded with tears. 

“NOT A BABY ‘ONY!” Peter yelled with more sadness than anger, tears now escaping his eyes. 

“Peter, I know that kiddo. But this is going to make things so much easier for both of us until we change you back. I’m not doing this to hurt, tease, or embarrass you.” Tony said raising his hands to show Peter he meant no harm. 

“NO ‘ONY! NOT A BABY! NO DIAPERS, NO BOTTLES, NO BABY!” Peter screamed, stamping his foot and crossing his arms. 

“Peter, please, I can’t keep washing sheets and I don’t have any more t-shirts to give you. If you put on a pull-up, and you can do it yourself if you want, you can pick a toy from the toy box to play with.” Tony tried to bribe. 

The second Peter’s brain heard “toy box”, he immediately stopped crying and his eyes lit up with excitement. Tony got whiplash from how fast Peter’s emotions just shifted, but he was willing to do anything than have a screaming toddler in front of him. 

“Yes buddy! All for you! You didn’t even get to see the last box, it’s full of toys! You can play with any and all of them, but you first have to promise to put on a pull-up and maybe a shirt that fits you properly.” Tony said, playing up his excitement to try and entice the young boy. 

Peter seemed to think about it for no more than 3 seconds before agreeing and bouncing over to the tall white and blue box. As his eye’s lay upon the ocean of plastic in front of him, Tony saw as he focused in on one toy in particular. Peter’s arms were too short to grab the toy and he whined while squirming to try and grab it. Tony moved forward to help and pointed to multiple toys before Peter yipped with happiness when Tony had found the correct one he wanted. Tony’s heart swelled as he pulled out the Ironman plushie and handed it to the vibrating child. Peter took the plushie and stared at it with such fondness and a tight grip that Tony thought the thing might explode. Tony walked over to the other box containing the diapers and pulled out a pull-up. It had Hulk on the front of it and a small blue line down the center. Tony had never seen one before, but saw that there were no tabs, and by the name of the product, assumed it slipped on just like underwear. He handed the garment to the kid and turned his back for Peter to change into. After giving the kid ample time to change, Tony turned around and found Peter playing with the Iron Man plushie. Tony grabbed a light blue shirt with a little bear on the front. It was soft. Really soft. Tony had never felt anything so soft in his entire life. Even his super expensive bed sheets weren’t this soft. After brushing his fingertips over the fabric for a few seconds, he turned to Peter and took off the oversized t-shirt, and slipped the correct fitting top over his small torso. Tony would never admit, but he was pretty proud of getting Peter situated and comfy. Maybe taking care of a toddler wouldn’t be so bad after all?

“Alright Pete, how about lunch?” Tony asked, smiling down at the little boy playing with his new Iron Man toy.


	5. Tony is Getting the Hang of Things

The rest of the day moved by pretty quick. After lunch, Tony watched Peter play with a few more of his toys until Peter tuckered himself out and fell asleep surrounded by legos and race cars of all different colors. 

Tony took the opportunity to write some emails and head to Bruce’s floor to discuss what Peter’s lab results were. Tony was disappointed when Bruce hadn’t found anything “wrong” with him. Now, Tony’s option was to try and rebuild the machine Peter made to get him back to the correct age. 

“Sir, Peter seems to be in distress, and I am unable to find a source.” Jarvis interrupted. Tony took that as his cue to leave, and made his way back to Peter. As soon as the elevator doors opened, Tony was met with an ear splitting cry from the little boy on the carpet, right where he left him. 

“Pete, buddy, what’s the matter?” Tony asked, kneeling down in front of the red faced boy. 

Peter responded by holding his arms up for Tony to pick him up. Tony awkwardly scooped up the crying baby, and almost immediately, Peter’s wails quieted to soft hiccuping after leaning his head on Tony’s shoulder. Tony got whiplash from how fast Peter calmed down. 

“What’s the matter buddy? Why are you so upset?” Tony questioned, putting his hand on Peter’s back and slowly rubbing soothing circles. 

“Miss ‘ou.” hiccuped Peter, sucking on his thumb, tears still streaming down his face.   
Tony could have died from adorableness from that response, but managed to keep his composure. “Well bubs, I’m here now.” 

Peter nuzzled his face further into Tony’s neck as he calmed himself, only hiccuping a few more times. Tony held his boy, tightening his grip to calm Peter more. He set his hand underneath Peter’s butt and immediately regretted it. He felt the warm squish of the pull-up, and realized Peter needed a change. 

“Feel better Petey?” Tony spoke up after sitting in silence, listening to Peter sniffle for the last 10 minutes. Peter nodded as a reply and looked at Tony with his big brown eyes. “Good. How about we change into a dry pull-up and you can play with your toys some more.” 

Peter furrowed his eyebrows and looked like he was about to start crying all over again. “NO! Don’t like it!” Peter pouted. 

“Buddy, it’s so much easier to do it this way, rather than having to bathe you each time you have an accident.” Tony responded. 

Peter started squirming to get out of Tony’s grip, but Tony held him firm against his chest. “Peter, I am not fighting you on this. You’ll get a rash if you sit in your mess, then you’ll be miserable, and then I’ll still have to change you.” Tony stated authoritatively. 

“‘Ony wears one.” Peter giggled, pointing at Tony’s arc reactor. 

“Ohhh is that so.” Tony said, humoring the toddler, and holding up a pull-up to his waist. “Hmm, I don’t think this will fit quite right.”

Peter squealed and clapped his chubby hands together while Tony rushed forward to put the pull-up on Peter’s head like a hat. Peter laughed and laughed, and Tony could not get enough of that noise. It was like music to him. 

Peter continued to laugh until he started to cough, and then out of nowhere, Peter threw up right down the front of his shirt and onto the floor in front of him, startling both him and Tony. 

“What the fuck?!” Tony jumped back. “Jarvis, scan Peter to see if he’s sick.” 

“Young Peter is not sick, Sir. Sometimes young children throw up if they laugh too much due to their esophageal sphincter not being fully developed. ” Jarvis stated. “I can send you links to research on the subject sir if you please. They say to allow moments for the child to breathe to avoid such an issue.”

“No need, Jar. I learned my lesson.” Tony said, picking up the messy toddler and carrying him to the bathroom down the hall. “Well, I guess it’s bath time now, huh Pete?” 

Tony stripped off Peter’s soiled top as the tub was filling. Peter was still in his sagging pull-up, but as soon as Tony went to pull it off, Peter jumped back. 

“Come on Pete, we gotta take it off to go in the back.” Tony sighed. 

“Uh uh ‘Ony. Naked.” Peter said between the fingers shoved in his mouth, pointing to his bottom with his free hand. 

“How about we have a bubble bath? I’m sure there’s some bubbles in one of those boxes.” Tony bribed. 

Peter’s eyes lit up like a christmas tree when he heard those words! “YEAH! ‘Ubble ‘ath!” Peter squealed, still talking between his fingers in his mouth. 

Tony thanked whatever God was on his side and saved him from having another screaming toddler. Tony led Peter out in the living room to find the bubble bath, and once they found it, they made their way back to the bath. Tony laughed to himself as he walked behind Peter, watching the kid waddle to the bathroom with a sagging diaper threatening to fall right off. 

Tony poured the bubble bath into the tub, and watched as Peter leaned over to swat at the rising bubbles while giggling happily. Once the bubbles were high enough, Tony grabbed Peter under the armpits and lowered him into the bath. Peter remained standing so Tony could break the sides and slide the pull-up out from between Peter’s legs. Tony tossed the diaper into the wastebasket, and went back to find peter with bubbles on top his head like a hat. Tony grabbed more bubbles and gave him a beard so he looked like Santa. Peter squealed and splashed in the bath for about 20 minutes, Tony happy to just watch and listen to his happy kid.

Tony washed Peter’s hair and scrubbed his body while Peter tried to grab the washcloth from Tony and splashed at the water. Tony drained the water until almost all the bubbles were gone, and rinsed Peter’s body off with clean water. Peter didn’t seem to mind being naked now. He seemed too intrigued with watching the bubbles go down the drain. Tony draped a green towel over Peter and scrubbed his body dry. Peter’s curls were longer and hung in front of his eyes. Tony combed his hair back and watched as his curls bounced right back into place. Tony grabbed a clean pull-up and handed it to Peter, who handed it right back to Tony. 

“No Peter, you need to put that on.” Tony said, handing the pull-up back to Peter.   
“No.” Peter shook his head. “Need help.”

“Oh, uhm okay, here.” Tony held the pull-up open for Peter to step into. Peter held onto Tony’s shoulder, steadying himself while he stepped into the garment. Tony yanked up the pull-up over Peter’s waist, and Peter took off running down the hall, giggling wildly. 

Tony sighed, but still had a smile on his face. ‘What a weird kid. Is this what all kids are like?’ Tony thought to himself. Making his way down the hall, Tony could see Peter peeking from around the corner of the couch, and hiding again when he made eye contact with Tony. 

Tony snuck up on Peter from the other side of the couch. Peter peaked back around and didn’t see Tony. Peter walked out into the hallway a little and yelled for Tony. 

“‘Ony?” Peter said a little confused and scared. Tony crept up behind Peter, and picked him up and threw him into the air above his head. Peter screamed wildly and laughed, clinging onto Tony when he came back down. Tony thought Peter’s happy noises were the absolute sweetest noise in the entire universe and he would do anything to keep hearing it. Though, he learned his lesson last time to give Peter a little break now and again. 

“Alright goofy kid, how about we eat some dinner.” Tony said, putting Peter down and walking over to the kitchen. Tony could hear Peter’s bare feet pattering behind him trying to keep up with Tony’s adult strides. Tony decided to heat up Steve’s lasagna for both of them, thankful for not having to figure out a meal. Peter ate his food quietly with Tony watching him pick out the little meat pieces and setting them aside. 

“What’s wrong with the meat, Pete?” Tony asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Is yucky. Don’ eat meat.” Peter replied.

Tony just “hmmed” and continued eating, watching Peter eat a few bites, then pick out more meat pieces. He didn’t know the kid didn’t like meat. Tony made a mental note of that and got up to put their dishes in the sink when Peter was done eating. Tony grabbed a washcloth to wipe Peter’s sauce covered hands off and wipe his mouth. He picked Peter up to set him on the floor, but Peter whined so Tony put him on his hip. All these actions were weirdly instinctual to Tony, which he found odd. Peter laid his head on Tony’s chest and brought his free hand up to his mouth to suck on his thumb. 

Tony went back up to his floor and into his room to put Peter to bed, but somehow, Tony ended up laying down with the kid as well. Tony just realized how exhausted he was as his head hit the pillow. His eyes were closed but Tony could feel Peter scoot across the bed and lay his head on Tony’s arc reactor. Tony peaked his eyes open, to find Peter laying on top of Tony’s chest, passed out, with his thumb in his mouth. Tony smiled and put his hand on the back of Peter’s head to run his hand through his baby soft hair. They fell asleep like that, and for the first time in a long time, Tony felt at peace.


	6. A Gift for Thor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter meets the rest of the Avenger's team! Well, as a baby this time at least...

Tony woke up slowly. He was so comfortable, it was like sleeping on a cloud, and it was so so so quiet. 

‘Wait, I have a kid, why is it so quiet?’ Tony thought, immediately giving him anxiety as he sat up and scanned the room. ‘Fuck, I should have woke up earlier.’ Tony thought, looking at the clock, noticing that it was only 8am. Tony rushed out of the room and couldn’t find Peter on his floor, and figured he made his way down to the communal floor to get food or play with his toys that were still strewn all over the floor. 

Tony mentally cursed himself as he made his way down the elevator. As soon as the elevator doors opened, Tony smiled when he saw Peter on the floor playing with his toys. But the next moment, he scanned the room, and saw four people staring back at him. 

“Fuck, well hey guys!” Tony said trying to hide his internal panic. “Didn’t expect you back so soon from your mission!”

“Language, Tony. There’s a child in the room.” Steve snapped. 

“Hm, yes, Spangles. I can see that.” Tony replied sarcastically. 

“Yeah Tony, so why is there a baby here?” Clint asked amusedly. “Is it yours?”

“No, but please let me get some coffee before you bombard me with questions.” Tony snarled. 

Clint put his hands up and backed off, going back to play with Peter and his toys. Tony walked to the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down on the couch in front of Peter, smiling when Peter handed him a lego block. Everyone gathered around Tony and conspicuously stared at him, like he was going to spill the beans right then and there. Tony noticed Peter’s wet diaper, and stood up to change Peter in the other room. 

“I have to change him first and I want him to eat something so he is busy while I explain this.” Tony said naturally, grabbing Peter and setting him on his hip. Secretly, Tony was panicking. This was not how he expected this to go. I didn’t expect for Peter to be a baby for this long. Hell, he didn’t expect Peter to be a baby, ever. 

Tony ripped the side pull-up and pulled it out and pulled out a clean one while Peter babbled on that something Tony couldn’t understand. To be honest, he wasn’t even listening. He was too busy battling the army of thoughts racing through his mind. Tony walked out with Peter on his hip again, and everyone turned to him as he walked in and moved to the kitchen. Tony pulled out the “just add water” pancake mix and began making Peter a few pancakes for him to eat while he explained the situation to the team. He set the pancakes down on Peter’s high chair and plopped the kid down. Peter happily munched away, not paying attention to the tension in the room. 

Tony walked over and slumped onto the couch next to Steve. 

“Well..” Nat pushed.

Tony sighed. “Well, this is Peter. Peter Parker. Yes our Peter Parker. Basically somehow he tried to make a time machine and somehow it turned him into a 2.5 year old kid. He still has his teen mindset, but he is regressing to his toddler mindset more it seems. Bruce has been consulted, done tests, and is helping me work on a way to turn Peter back into his normal teen self. That’s all I know. That’s all I’m going to say.” Tony seemed to push out in all one breath. 

Everyone gawked at the explanation and turned to look at Peter eating his pancakes, not paying attention to anything. Peter turned and smiled and waved to Tony when he saw him. Tony waved back and smiled. “Hi buddy.” 

“Wan’ play now!” Peter screeched out making grabby hands at Tony. 

Tony moved forward and picked Peter out of the highchair and put him on the floor, where he went running back to his toys. Steve kneeled down to Peter’s height and Peter just stared back at Steve as Steve studied Peter’s face. 

“Holy smokes, it really is Peter isn’t.” Steve announced, still staring at Peter. 

Peter lifted his fingers to his mouth and handed Steve a lego block, squealing when Steve grabbed the block from Peter. 

Thor hesitantly shuffled over and eyed the miniscule version of Peter and the colorful blocked laid out around him. Thor sat cross legged in front of Peter and watched curiously as Peter stared back at Thor with wide eyes. 

“Hello youngling.” Thor began, “Do you know who I am?”

Peter stood up and ran away from Thor, causing the God to sigh to himself. He looked and saw that the team who all seemed to be glaring at him for scaring the kid. Though, Peter came back around giggling and running in circles while holding something in his hand. Peter stipped in front of Thor and held out the item he had retrieved. 

Thor held out his hand and grabbed the Thor stuffie from Peter. “Is ‘ou! Is T’or!” Peter squealed with his free hand shoved in his mouth. 

“Can I keep this, Peter?” Thor asked, shaking the stuffie gently.

“Yes! Gift from Pe’er.” Peter said, beaming his toothy grin.

Thor stared at the stuffed figure and held onto it tightly, closing his eyes. When he reopened them, he had tears surfacing which scared Peter. 

“Pe’er bad?” Peter whispered only so Thor could hear.

“No! No! Not at all little one. I am overjoyed with happiness and emotion. I never had a satisfactory relationship with my brother, and never received a gift from him. This reminds me of how our relationship would be if we got along more civilized ” Thor said wiping his eyes on his sleeve. 

Peter jumped onto Thor’s lap and hugged him with all his toddler strength while everyone else watched on. 

Once Tony finished his 3rd cup of coffee, he hopped up from his position and walked over behind Peter. 

“Not that this reunion isn’t fun and all, but Peter and I should be going. I still have to figure out a way to turn him back and wasting time visiting isn’t going to help much.” Tony said clapping his hands together. 

Peter looked back behind him and frowned. “No ‘Ony! Wan’ play here!” Peter shouted. 

“No Pete. You gotta come back with me. I need to go to the lab to start working on getting you back to normal and you need lunch.” 

Tony moved forward to pick Peter up, but Peter dodged his hands and scurried away to hide behind Thor. Tony was starting to get irritated and everyone could see the veins starting to pop out in Tony’s neck. 

Clint was the first to try and deescalate the situation. “Tones. How about I watch the little guy? To be honest, I am missing my kids a lot right now, and I wouldn’t mind one bit. I can make a mean PB&J for him too.” Clint said, grabbing Tony by the shoulder. 

Steve and Thor also chimed in that Peter would have fun with them and that they wouldn’t mind watching the tot. 

Tony seemed to think about it for a bit, running through his thoughts as to whether Peter would be okay with them for a bit. He would never leave Pete unsupervised with them individually, but with the 3 of them (and maybe Nat and maybe Bruce if he decided to come out of his cave), Peter would probably be fine. 

Tony agreed and bent down in front of Peter to explain the situation to him. 

“Hey Petey, the teams going to look after you for a little bit while I head down to the lab and get to work on getting you changed back. Be good to them okay?” Tony said, running his hands through Peter’s curls. 

Peter didn’t seem too upset about the situation, which Tony found that he was not enthusiastic about. Not that he wanted a screaming toddler again, he just thought..he and Peter had bonded more. ‘Stupid idea’ Tony thought as he made his way down to the lab. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tony spent a good amount of time in the lab just gathering the pieces of destroyed material that littered the lab to try and take a closer look at what Peter had initially put together. He tried to piece together a rough blueprint of what pieces he could identify, but he couldn’t actually figure out what Peter did. He wrote down all the calculations he remembered checking for the kid, but some were still missing. Basically, what he had now, was the blueprint for a fancy microwave. So things were not going well. Tony was just about to head up and snag Peter to see if he could assist at all, even in his 2 year old mindset, but Jarvis spoke up first.

“Sir, there seems to be a disturbance with Peter and the Team. Peter seems to be in extreme distress, as are the other members.” Jarvis alerted. 

Tony hightailed it back to where he left Peter, cursing under his breath for knowing not to leave Peter with others when he was not physically there. The elevator doors opened and Tony was struck with an ear piercing scream that made him have to cover his ears if he wanted his eardrums intact. The other team members, including Bruce now, were at the other end of the room, covering their mouths. 

Tony began to walk over to the screaming toddler, when the smell hit him. Oh god did it hit him like a freight train. Tony immediately gagged and had to sacrifice his ears to cover his nose to try and stem the vomit that wanted to exit his body. Peter was sitting on the floor, screaming like he was being burned alive. His eyes were shut and his head tilted towards the ceiling as he continued to wail. Tony could see what seemed to be melted chocolate spilling out of the sides of Peter’s pull-up, but Tony knew it was a lot less enjoyable than chocolate. 

As Tony slowly approached Peter, holding his nose for dear life, he tapped Peter to get his attention. Peter jumped, causing his eyes to open. Once he saw Tony, he made frantic grabby hands to be picked up. Tony could not stomach the thought of holding the soiled kid, so he grabbed Peter’s hand and dragged him down the hall to the bathroom. Tony placed Peter in the empty bathtub and ran back out of the room before he puked all over the place. Tony was having a minor panic attack when Steve came down the hallway to where Tony was standing outside the door. 

“What in God’s green earth did you feed the kid, Tony?” Steve exclaimed. “That was by far the most revolting smell that has ever assaulted my nose in the entirety of my life, and that is saying a lot.”

“Hell if I know Steve. I didn’t know he didn’t have control of his bowels either.” Tony snapped before coming to a conclusion. “I guess he hasn’t pooped in a few days though, maybe he was constipated and couldn’t go so it just...i don't know...fermented in him or something.” Tony said, chuckling to mostly himself. 

Steve did not look very amused and smacked Tony in the arm. “Not funny Tony, maybe he is sick or something.”

“No, I don’t think so. Jarvis has been scanning him and he hasn’t detected any viruses or bacteria in him.” Tony said more calmly. 

“Well you better get back in there and clean him up before the smell travels through the ducts and you gas out your entire building.” Steve said nodding towards the door. “Do you need anything before you go in there?”

“Yes. Get me every pair of rubber gloves we have and get me a rain poncho. It’s going to be a shit show in there.” Tony said, smirking at his pun that Steve seemed to ignore. 

“Sure. I’ll get the other’s to find the gloves while I get you a rain poncho.” Steve said turning to walk back to the others. 

A few minutes later, Steve returned with gloves, a rain poncho, and even a gas mask. “This was mine from the war. Treat her nicely.” Steve said, handing the items to Tony. 

Tony suited up and opened the door to the bathroom. He was met with whimpering and a red faced toddler in the tub. Tony stripped Peter down to his birthday suit and threw the entire lot of clothes into the garbage. Instead of wasting time wiping the kid down with baby wipes, Tony decided to just use the shower head to hose Peter off. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What seemed like too long to change the kid, Tony finally exited the bathroom with a clean and bundled Peter. The rest of the team was sitting on the couch watching TV when Tony entered the room and all turned to see Peter smiling down at them. The window was open and a cool breeze was entering the room, causing Peter to shiver.

“Hello, youngling. That was a remarkable amount of waste that came out. You must feel much better.” Thor nodded seeming to agree with himself. 

Peter giggled at the way Thor described the situation and started to wiggle to be put down. Tony held on tight though because Peter was still naked underneath the towel. 

“Well thanks for watching Pete for me. Next time I’ll make sure to bring some air fresheners and a clean pull-up for him.” Tony said heading back towards the elevator to head to his floor to change Peter into new clothes. 

Clint jumped up and walked over to Tony. “You know Tones, Peter doesn’t seem like he’s “old enough” for pull-ups. Those are for kids who wet but have control of their bowels. You might want to try diapers on him. It would definitely prevent a blow out like that again.” Clint said, clapping a hand on Tony’s shoulder. 

Tony smiled and nodded at the advice and headed back to his floor with Peter in his arms. With Peter having ate lunch already, Tony decided to try and get the kid to take a nap because he knew kids were supposed to do that at some point during the day. Tony put a diaper on Peter and a top with dancing bananas on it and layed the kid down on the couch where he could sit and keep an eye on him while he caught up on some emails. 

Just as Peter seemed to fall asleep, Tony’s phone rang and he picked it up without looking at the caller-ID. 

“Anthony Edward Stark, I am giving you all but 5 seconds to explain why you spent $7000 on children’s supplies and had it shipped to your floor while I was out of town!” Pepper bellowed. 

‘Well shit…’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who have liked and commented on this piece so far! Makes me feel better that this isn't complete and utter trash!


	7. Pepper's "Wrath"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper meets baby Peter

“Pep, I need you to calm down because it’s not what you think.” Tony said trying to act as calm as he could. 

“Oh no no no Tony, I don’t want to hear any excuses or lies. I want to truth right now before I turn this plane around and come straight home!” Pepper screeched. 

“Pepper, it’s Peter. Peter got into an accident and …” Tony began but paused, not knowing how to finish without sounding like he should be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. “Well, Peter somehow deaged himself and now he’s a baby and I’m looking after him until I get it sorted out.”

“That’s it Tony, I’m turning this plane around. I’ll be back tomorrow morning for you to explain to me.” Pepper huffed and then hung up the phone.

‘That could have gone better’ Tony thought.

Tony looked down at Peter sleeping with his sweaty curls sticking to his forehead and suckling on his thumb. At least Peter seems content and doesn’t have to worry about adult things yet. He can just be a kid, a literal one at that, and play with his toys. 

Tony moved off the couch and went to the kitchen to get himself a cup of coffee. He really needed to get to work on Peter’s issue, but now, since Pepper didn’t believe him, he kinda needed Peter to be the way he was. Fuck this is stressful.

‘Okay Tony, get your shit together. What’s first? Getting Peter back to his teen self has moved down a bit on the list because of Pepper. Should I get some material together to prove it’s Peter? Maybe I should clean up the living room from all Peter’s supplies.’ Tony reasoned. ‘OH, maybe I could finally make Peter his guest room. Since I have a bed to put together, that would help keep my hands and brain busy from the constant crippling stress.’ 

Tony seemed to make up his mind, mentally rating each thing he needed to do on how stressful it was going to be, putting the most stressful things at the bottom of the list. That’s a healthy coping mechanism, right? 

Grabbing the toddler bed box and sliding all the materials out on the ground, Tony went to work assembling the furniture and running it down the hall from his room to the “guest room” that was now going to be Peter’s. The room was just a spare office if Tony needed a new change of scenery but changed it up in case Pepper or Rhodey wanted to sleep over. 

Tony spent about an hour before he heard Peter stirring on the couch and saw the little boy sit up and watch Tony sleepily put together the bed. Peter managed to put the TV on and mindlessly watched whatever cartoon was on while he took his time waking up from his nap. 

Tony moved the boxes of supplies to Peter’s new room and had a few more touches to add to finally surprise the kid. After adding a few stuffed animals to the dresser top, shoving Peter’s clothes and nappies into the drawers, and plugging in the few Avenger’s themed lights, Tony was ready to show Peter his new room. 

“Peter?” Tony spoke softly as to not startle him after entering the room. 

Peter turned to look at Tony, seemingly waiting for the next part of the question. 

“I have a surprise for you down the hall, buddy. Want to see?” Tony asked, loving the way Peter’s eyes lit up. 

“Yes! Yes! Present!” Peter squealed, sliding off the couch and down the hall to Tony’s bedroom where he expected the surprise to be. 

Tony walked after Peter to push the confused looking boy down the hall to another room Peter had never been in. Tony opened the door and Peter cautiously walked in. 

“Do you like your new room Peter?” Tony questioned nervously. 

“Pe’er’s room?” Peter asked jumping up and down with excitement. 

“Yeah buddy, you get your own room in the Avenger’s tower. How about that!” Tony laughed, relieved Peter enjoyed the surprise. 

Peter ran around in circles around the room, stopping at a new item each pass to admire it. After about 20 laps, Peter finally slowed and pulled his Iron Man stuffie off the bed to hold against his chest still grinning from ear to ear. 

Before Tony could ask Peter another question, Peter made a really weird and confused face. Tony thought he might have hurt himself or was going to ask a question, but Peter just cocked his head to the side and bent his legs a little. About 10 seconds later, Peter stood back up like nothing happened, but still had a weird look plastered on his face. 

Peter looked up at Tony, and his cheeks reddened.

“What’s wrong Peter? Are you feeling okay?” 

“I pee.” Peter answered. 

Now that Tony knew that, he could tell Peter was standing with his legs apart slightly, not wanting to have the bloated diaper against his body. 

“Well should we change you then?” Tony asked, already moving to the dresser to get out a new diaper. 

“Don’t like the feeling.” Peter exclaimed, eyes downcast. 

‘Peter must have come back into his teen mindset’ Tony thought. ‘I should ask him about the machine before I lose him again to a screaming toddler’.

“It’s alright bud, we’ll get you cleaned up. But first, I need to ask you about your time machine Peter. I need to know how you put it together so I can replicate the age reversal and try to get you back to being 15 years old.” 

“Uhh...well...I-I first looked into how the time s-stone was able to move people through time and space and used similar equations to how it works to t-travel back in time.” Peter managed to get out with just a few stutters.   
“But ‘Ony, I don’t r-remember what equations any-anymore.” Peter said, seeming to get more upset. 

Tony noticed the sluring and stuttering of his words and pressed him further to quickly get out any information he had to help him. 

“Okay, what else Peter? What else do you remember?” Tony urged. 

“I-I-I forget. I-I need aunt May ‘Ony.” Peter stammered out, tears filling his eyes. 

“Stay with me buddy, what about the time stone?” 

As if a new slide on a projector entered the frame, Tony watched as his intern had disappeared and younger Peter reentered. Peter seemed dazed for a second, and immediately made grabby hands for Tony to pick him up as tears rolled down his chubby cheeks. 

“Let’s change you now, huh Pete?” Tony sighed. 

Peter nodded, and nuzzled against Tony more as Tony held him tightly back. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After dinner, Peter was being really clingy. Tony couldn’t even walk away for a few minutes to answer a call without him bursting out in tears. It was really frustrating, but Tony actually liked the feeling it gave him deep down. No one ever relied on him like Peter did, yes Peter is a literal baby, but even before he de-aged. Peter was always really fun to be around in the lab and could keep up with Tony no problem. After finding out Peter was Spiderman did Tony start talking to the kid about S.H.I.E.L.D a little and possibly joining the team. Tony would have never thought, but he actually missed Peter’s presence when he had school or was at a school program. 

Tony’s phone rang again and Tony stood up to answer the call, but looked down at Peter whose eyes were filling with tears and his bottom lip sticking out. Tony immediately sent the call to voicemail and sat back down next to Peter. 

“What’s the matter buddy? Why are you so sad tonight?” Tony questioned, poking Peter in the side to get him to smile. 

A sad smile rose to Peter’s mouth, but quickly faded. “Miss ‘ou.” Peter whispered. 

“Miss me? Pete I’m not going anywhere. You’re staying right here with me.” Tony affirmed. 

“Not send Pe’er away to live wif stwangers?” Peter sqeaked out.

“What? No no no buddy, never. I’ve gottchu.” Tony said, running his hand through Peter’s curls. “Where did you get that idea?”

“Pepper mad Pe’er is here wif ‘ou. Pepper doesn’t wike Pe’er!” Peter cried out.

“I didn’t know you heard that conversation Peter. Pepper isn’t mad, she just doesn’t understand what happened. She thinks I’m lying and that I have a different baby with me.” Tony explained. 

“So, Pe’er stays here wif ‘Ony?” Peter said, thumb sneaking its way up to his mouth.

“Yeah buddy, Peter stays with me. I won’t let you go.” Tony said, pulling Peter into his lap. 

Peter nuzzled into the affection and soon fell asleep on Tony. Tony watched Peter’s breathing even out and how his furrowed brow soon evened out. His curls hung down on his forehead and his hand clung to Tony’s shirt reflexively in his sleep. Soon Tony began to nod off too, happy his kid and him ended the night with few tears. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tony jolted awake to the sound of his phone ringing. Tony picked up and answered involuntarily, not paying attention to who was on the phone. 

“This is Stark.” Tony said groggily. 

“Tony, I’m just getting into town. I’ll be there in about 30 minutes.” Pepper said shortly, and promptly hung up the phone. 

Tony just sat back and looked at the phone in his hand like it personally attacked him. Peter was still sleeping peacefully with his head on Tony’s thigh and thumb plunged into his mouth. Tony looked over at the clock on the wall: 7:13am. Too early to start a crisis averting conversation. 

Tony lifted Peter’s head to put a pillow underneath and snuck out from under the sleeping toddler and walked to his room to get dressed. He threw on a crewneck sweater and some jeans and went back to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee. When he returned, he saw that Peter was still “sleeping”, but was now patting the couch in search of Tony. When Peter didn’t feel Tony anywhere near him, he sat up to look around the room. When he spotted Tony, he smiled and laid his head back down, almost immediately fell back asleep. The room was filled with tiny snores and Tony just admired the kid on the couch, while waiting for Pepper to arrive. 

Almost 30 minutes on the dot, Jarvis exclaimed that Pepper was on her way up. Peter was starting to stir, slowly waking himself up from his slumber. The elevator doors opened and Pepper came storming in, guns ablazing. 

“TONY STARK! You better explain yourself…” Pepper began but immediately stopped when seeing the sleepy-eyed child sitting on the couch. 

She looked between Peter and Tony, almost as if she was looking for similarities, and then walked over and squated in front of the little boy. 

“Hello sweetie. My name is Pepper. Is this your daddy?” Pepper asked, pointing a finger at Tony. 

Peter didn’t answer, but instead looked between Pepper and Tony, trying to figure out a response. 

“‘Ony is Ironman and Pe’er is Spidaman!” Peter exclaimed proudly. 

“Is that so? Who is Peter, hunny?” Pepper asked again, thinking Peter was reciting something Tony told him to say. 

“ME!” Peter squealed, jumping off the couch and running towards the elevator.

Tony walked towards Peter, motioning for Pepper to follow to head down to the common floor to eat breakfast. Pepper followed, still looking like she was about to rip Tony’s head off, but nice enough that young Peter wouldn’t catch on to the whole issue at hand. 

Tony ignored the look and walked over to where Peter had entered the kitchen and started to rummage through the cupboards. 

“Peter, I need you to help prove to Pepper that you are who we say you are. Peter, am I your dad?” Tony asked.

Peter looked up at Tony with his sad big brown eyes, “Nu uh, not Pe’er’s daddy. But Pe’er wishes ‘Ony was Pe’er’s daddy.” 

Tony was not expecting that, and stood there with his mouth agape. It took him a few moments to realize both Pepper and Peter were staring at him and he physically shook himself out of the trance he was in. 

“So, Peter, how did you become a baby? Last time I saw you you were about my height and a 15 year old teenager.” Pepper finally spoke up. 

Peter’s mood drastically changed and he had tears building up in his eyes. “Pe’er twies to bring Aunt M-May back.”

At the sight of tears, Tony rushed forward to try to calm Peter before he spiraled down into a full blown meltdown again. Pepper sat back and watched as Tony picked up the little boy and held him close while Peter nuzzled into Tony’s neck and whimpered. 

“I’m so sorry for making you cry Peter.” Pepper said apologetically. 

Peter responded by nuzzling further into Tony’s neck. “It’s okay Pepper, he is just really sensitive about the topic.” Tony responded when he realized that Peter was not going to answer. “If you still don’t believe me, you can watch the video feed from the lab where it happened.”

“No, no, that’s okay. I believe you. I feel really stupid thinking you would have cheated on me.” Pepper said, eyes downcast. 

Tony reached out a hand to grab her’s with. “Don’t think that. I would have thought the same thing. This is an impossible situation to try to explain over the phone. Would you like to eat breakfast with me and Pete this morning since you’re here?”

A small smile crept its way to Pepper’s face. “That would be very nice, Tony.”


	8. Intruder Alert

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is a bit short, but its a better set up for me to build off of! Thanks for those who've commented!

“I just need to change him and wash up and then I can attempt to cook something.” Tony stated, standing with Peter still in his arms. 

“Take your time. I’m in no rush.” 

Tony slung Peter over his shoulder so that Peter was able to see Pepper as they walked over to the elevator and back up to Tony’s bathroom. Peter laid his head on Tony’s shoulder and waved. She had to admit, she had never seen this side of Tony before, and she really really liked it. 

It didn’t take Tony long to change Peter into new clothes and a new diaper, but by the time they came back out, there was a stack of pancakes on the table waiting for them. Pepper was finishing scrambling eggs when they sat at the table. 

“Jeez Pep, you didn’t have to make us breakfast.” Tony said surveying the food. He sat Peter in his high chair and strapped him in before grabbing a pancake and cutting it up into small pieces for him. 

Pepper smiled to herself seeing Tony act like a father to Peter, even if it was temporary. Pepper brought the platter of scrambled eggs over and scooped a small pile for Peter on his tray before sitting down across from Tony. 

“I took the day off to be here, but is there anything I can do to help you get Peter back to his teenage self?” Pepper asked, taking a pancake for herself. 

Tony stopped for a minute and thought before shaking his head no. “I don’t think there’s much anyone can do. I need to recreate Peter’s machine so that I can get him back to normal in as close of a process as possible.” Tony sighed. 

“Even if it’s just watching Peter while you work, I just want to be here for you.” She said, reaching out to hold his hand. 

Tony smiled back and felt better. ‘This is what having a family must feel like. Snap out of it Stark, you’re not a family man.’ Tony thought, smile fading slightly. 

Pepper seemed to notice and tried to divert the situation a little to a more proactive plan. “So what’s your idea on how to get Peter back? If it would help, I can watch Peter this afternoon. I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun, won’t we baby boy.” Pepper said, poking Peter’s side which made him emit a high pitched squeal. 

Tony smiled at his favorite people interacting. “Sure, that would be helpful, Pep.” Tony replied, gulping down the last of his coffee. “Let me show you where all his supplies are so you are ready if something happens or he needs a change. Just so you know, he’s not potty trained at all.”

“We’ll I figured that much Tony” Pepper laughed. “He’s only 2.”

“Just wanted to prepare you.” Tony laughed, putting his hands up in defense. “Come on, I’ll give you the tour of Peter’s stuff now.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leaving Peter was surprisingly hard for Tony. Pepper had to keep reassuring him that everything would be fine and that he could go down to the lab. As soon as he was in the elevator, his anxiety got the best of him and he had to make sure Pepper knew how to change, water, feed, bathe, etc, etc, etc, etc Peter. It was like he was preparing her for a month long expedition to the Arctic, rather than just being a few floors away. He eventually forced himself to go to the lab and had Jarvis refuse to let him back up unless he was actually needed. 

After getting situated in the lab, Tony watched the video feed of Peter’s machine exploding and him building the machine to replicate it the best he could. Five hours in, and Tony had the shell of the machine as well as some of the internal components, but he wasn’t sure where Peter had gotten the power source from. On the video feed, all he could do was see Peter rummaging through the desk, grab something, and quickly hook it up. He walked over to Peter’s bench and rummaged through but found nothing but papers containing math homework, drawings, a few candy wrappers, and a letter to May from years ago. 

Tony grew increasingly frustrated from not being able to replicate Peter’s machine correctly. Hypothetically, if he did figure out how to change Peter back, he didn’t understand how Peter had reversed time for just his physical self. Normally, the machine would fuse with the fragments of the past and reverse time for the whole environment that person was in. Peter just did it for himself. It just...was...not...possible.

After some more time tinkering and throwing things around, Tony made his way back up to where Peter and Pepper were to try and clear his mind for a bit. When he got to his floor, he found Pepper laying on the couch with Peter laying on her chest, sound asleep. She smiled as Tony exited the elevator and mouthed the words, “SO CUTE” to Tony who just rolled his eyes. 

Tony sat down on the couch near her feet and ran his hand through Peter’s sweaty curls. “How long has he been out for?” 

“Hmm, a few hours. He had a mini meltdown after you left, but I got him to calm down by making him draw you pictures for when you came back.” Pepper smiled. 

“I’m going to wake him up, I don’t want him to not be tired for tonight when he goes to bed.” Tony said, beginning to rub circles on Peter’s back to gently wake him up. 

Peter began to stir and sat up on Pepper’s belly. He rubbed his eyes before noticing that Tony was right next to him. 

“‘Ony!” Peter squealed happily. “Miss ‘ou.”

“So I heard.” Tony smiled back at him. “I also heard you made me some presents!”

That must have jogged Peter’s mind because he scrambled off Pepper onto the floor and ran to the other side of the room to get the papers scattered all over the floor. He ran back with about 10 pages of paper back in each hand and threw them all at once at Tony. 

Tony and Pepper just laughed at how Peter had become so uncoordinated in the last week. Tony bent down to pick up a few of the pages and looked at them with confusion. It was just scribbles. Just different colors of scribbles. 

“Wow bud...these are really nice….uh...animals?” Tony stated.

“No ‘Ony! Is ‘ou and Pe’er!” Peter explained pointing at the various scribbles. 

“Oh I see it now! Very cool buddy. You are quite the artist.” Tony lied. 

Peter beamed at the praise and clung to Tony’s legs. Tony laid a hand on top of his head and ran his hand through Peter’s soft curls. 

“How about some dinner buddy? What should we make?” Tony asked. 

Peter seemed to think about it for 0.2 seconds because he smiled mischievously. “COOKIES!”   
“Not for dinner bubby. How about we have cookies for dessert? We can even watch a movie too if you want.” Tony chimed in, hoping that saying no wouldn’t send the kid into a tantrum. 

But Peter seemed just fine with the option. Tony decided to whip up some quick veggie burgers for the three of them. Tony sat Peter in his high chair and gave him the disassembled components of a burger to eat knowing he didn’t have the coordination to hold a whole burger in his hands. Pepper, who had gone to the bathroom to wash up came back to a whole burger and side salad ready for her on the table. Amazed, she sat across from Tony and took a few bites of the burger. 

“Tony! This is fantastic! I didn’t know you even knew how to cook this well.” Pepper praised. 

“I don’t, you can thank Joe for these burgers and Betty for the brownies in the oven.” Tony quipped. 

“Who is Joe and Betty?” Pepper asked curiously. 

“Trader Joe’s and Betty Crocker.” Tony announced, seemingly unphased by the look of amusement on Pepper’s face. 

They ate peacefully, watching Peter stick different ingredients of a burger in his mouth before taking it out, studying the half chewed food, and then sticking it back in his mouth. 

After cleaning up the dishes and heading to the bathroom for a quick diaper change, the three of them sat in front of the TV with Peter babbling about some show he watched when he was bigger. Tony wasn’t paying any attention to him, and instead was soaking in the moment of how he, Pepper, and his kid had ended up cuddling on the couch together in just under a week. He wouldn’t change it for the world. 

They chose to watch some Disney Pixar movie that consisted of a redheaded badass kid who could shoot an arrow just as good as Hawkeye. The graphics were actually pretty good and he enjoyed watching Peter fully engaged for a total of 20 minutes until he started to nod off. 

Peter managed to worm his way cross both Pepper and Tony’s laps so he was sprawled out, sleeping with his arms above his head. By the time the movie was over, Tony had fallen asleep too with his hand on top of Peter’s head. Pepper snuck out her phone and took a picture of the two before slowing patting them awake to head to their own beds. 

“Alright sleepy heads, time for bed I think.” Pepper said, moving Peter off her lap.   
Peter responded by curling into a ball and sticking his thumb in his mouth. Tony slowly opened his eyes and realized Peter was still sleeping on his lap. 

“Alright buddy boy. Time for bed.” Tony yawned. Picking Peter up under the arms and placing his against his chest. “Say goodnight to Pepper baby.” 

Peter removed his thumb from his mouth to wave with his hand. While Tony walked to Tony’s bedroom to change his diaper and get PJ’s on. 

Tony placed Peter in his new bedroom bed and slowly closed the door to head back out to Pepper. 

Just as he met her down the hallway, Jarvis spoke up and the hallways flashed red. 

“Boss, it seems that there was a breach in the security and a rouge individual has entered the building. I am unable to track who it is and they are able to override your commands. I am putting myself into immediate shutdown and deactivation for the safety of you and your team.”

And just like that, the lights and the electricity went out, except for the flashing red lights. Tony could just make out Pepper’s frame and lunged forward to grab her and pull her to Peter’s room. Thankfully Tony had thought to put in a secret manual mechanism to open the door to Peter’s room, just in case the tyke had changed the code somehow. He flipped up the hallway rug and followed the etching to halfway down the hallway, where a fake outlet had been installed. The outlet flipped open at the touch of Tony’s hand and a lever was revealed. It looked like a joystick for an old video game, but it held a combination of moved that released the lock on the door. 

Tony sprinted back down the hallway to Pepper and pushed her inside where Peter was now awake and crying. Tony rushed forward to grab him and Pepper and hide them in the closet which opened to a new room that looked similar to the lab. Though it seemed more like a safe bunker with a mini kitchen, 2 bedrooms, and a living space.

“Pepper, I need to go and help the team with finding out who this intruder is.” I need you to keep Peter safe and calm. Everything you need for his should be in here. I love you.” Tony said kissing her quickly and turning to leave. “This door will remain shut until you open it from the inside. Don’t open it for anyone but me. The bedroom door will also lock but as you saw, I had a manual opener for it.” 

Peter was sobbing now and making grabby hands towards Tony. Tony quickly kissed the top of his head before closing the door and securing the lock. Fuck. This is bad. 

Tony suited up and headed towards the common floor where the team should have congregated. When he managed to get to them. They were all huddled around someone in the middle of the floor. Nat had a gash on her forehead and Bruce was, well, green. Clint was kneeling in front of the individual. Tony slowly made his way up to see who he needed to kill for scaring him and his kid shitless. 

“What the fuck?! How..How...are you really here? Who? How????” Tony stuttered.

“Hi son…it’s been awhile.”


	9. Peter Saves the Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay everyone! I've been legit working about 75 hours a week to get enough money to pay for rent and start paying my student loans off. In all seriousness, find a job that pays and that you enjoy. I'm sure these last few weeks would have actually killed me if I didn't enjoy my job. Thanks for all the support! 
> 
> Also, updates might be a little slower but I don't expect another large break like that anytime soon.

“How?....HOW? How are you here?” Tony stammered. 

“Is that how you treat your old man? Come give me a hug dammit!” Howard grinned. 

Tony inched forward, everyone still seemingly in shock. He grabbed hold of Howard’s outstretched hand and pulled him into a hug. Tony’s eyes immediately started to fill with tears. He smelled the same. He looked the same as the last time he saw him. He sounded and had the same arrogant demeanor. 

Tony pulled back from the hug, still in disbelief. “Where’s..Where’s mom?” He shakily asked, looking around like she was going to come from around the corner. 

“I don’t know son. She wasn’t here when I came through the warp.” Howard said sadly. 

Tony’s heart broke a little more. Thinking he could get a second chance with his parents and gave him a lot of hope the minute he laid eyes on Howard. 

“So, so how did this happen? How did you come through a time warp?” Tony asked again, still not satisfied with his dad beating around the bush. 

“Jesus Tones, I can explain that over dinner! I’m starving! Let’s go downtown and get a burger or something. So who’s the lucky lady hmm?” Howard smirked. 

“What?” Tony asked.   
“Tony, you’re glowing. Where’s the kid?” Howard grinned. “Never thought I’d see the day you became a father!” He said clapping a hand on Tony’s shoulder. 

“I don’t..I don’t have a kid.” Tony tried to lie, obviously failing. 

“Oh come on Tones. Look around. There’s toys and baby stuff everywhere.” Howard said gesturing to the rest of the common room. 

Nat was the first to interject. “Uhm, those would be mine. I have mommy issues.” She said casually. 

Tony and Bruce stared at her like she had just committed a *murder* willing act of kindness. 

“Well in that case, we should head out to eat something. I need to try these new burgers that aren't actually meat! Can you believe that?!” Howard announced. 

The team all shared a look of amusement and slowly but surely dispersed. Steve was the one to who seemed to stick around, just assessing the situation while Howard and Tony began to walk to the kitchen and talk. 

“So Tony, how’ve you been? You’re looking mighty fine these days. And don’t try to fool me about the kid. I know he’s here somewhere. I saw that look in your eyes when I mentioned him. But don’t worry, I can meet him when you’re both ready.” Howard stated while sticking a handful of potato chips into his mouth. 

“I uhh...yeah. Well you see... he’s not really my kid.” Tony began. “He kinda somehow deaged himself. He was my intern and one of our new team members.” 

“The spider-boy right? I read about him in the paper when I woke up trying to figure out where I was.” Howard said. “So he’s a super baby now?”

“Basically. I’m in the middle of trying to get him back to his teen self but it’s been harder than expected.” Tony sighed. 

“Well maybe I can give a hand. Two Starks have GOT to be better than one. Just think about what we could accomplish Tones.” Howard clapped a hand on his son’s shoulder. 

Tony’s eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas. “I didn’t even think about showing you the lab! Things have advanced a lot in the 20-25 years. You won’t believe the things we can do now.”

“I’d love to, Son.” Howard beamed. “Oh and Tony?”

“Yes, Dad?”

“I missed you…” Howard stated. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tony had some fear about talking about Peter in front of his dad. Maybe it was the parental thing, but he just is feeling so protective over him. 

They took their time going down to the lab, detouring at each floor to give him the grand tour of the place. Tony couldn't help but notice that Steve was following them ever so slowly, stopping at each floor they were on and pretending to do chores or cook something, but laying low and watching Tony and Howard from a distance. It was pretty inconspicuous for awhile since they had to take the stairs, but soon enough, Tony caught on. 

Howard never seemed to notice and just kept chatting as Tony led him around the tower. By the time they made it to the lab, Tony was feeling calmer and more open to sharing the last few years events with his father. He explained how he managed to escape being a hostage by the Ten Rings and how he built the first Iron Man suit. From there he explained his upgrades, beaming at the praise his father was giving him. Tony managed to get Jarvis and his systems back together and the tower was fully functional again. 

Once Jarvis was up and running, a mass announcement rang through the tower stating so. Not more than 10 seconds afterwards, Jarvis spoke up. “Sir, it seems Captain Rogers would like a word in private.” 

“Sure Jar, send him down.” Tony said, focusing on showing his dad his proton blasters he was working on for a possible upgrade for Peter’s suit. 

Steve entered the lab and Tony could see the worry in his friend’s eyes. Something was wrong. Steve was pacing and fiddling with his hands nervously, well, enough that Tony could tell something was up. 

“What’s up Spangles?” Tony asked from across the lab. 

“Uhmm...well I just thought I should update you on the media’s response to the outage of the Tower.” Steve said nervously. 

“What do you mean the media? They shouldn’t know anything other than the power went out and it really isn’t the first time that’s happened.” Tony stated confused. 

“Well that’s why I'm here to update you.” Steve spit out. 

“Jesus okay.” Tony held his hands up in defeat before turning to his father. “Just be a moment Dad. I’ll get Pepper on the issue and it’ll be fixed in no time.” 

“No problem, Son. I’m just going to keep looking around.” Howard said nonchalantly turning back to look at the row of Iron Man suits from over the years. 

Tony followed Steve out of the lab and into a conference room Tony had nearby. Before Tony could ask what the media had gotten into, Steve had already blurted out what was causing him so much distress. 

“What do you mean that’s NOT my dad?” Tony said through clenched teeth. 

“Tony, I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s not him. He’s...off. That’s not the Howard I knew and I can believe that he seems different to you too!” Steve pleaded. 

“First of all Steve, you don’t know jack shit. He looks the same, smells the same, and sounds the same. What makes you think he’s not real?” Tony said, seeming hurt. 

“I don’t know Tony. I’m not saying he’s not real, I just don’t think that it’s really Howard.” Steve says bowing his head a little to show he’s just as upset. “I think there’s more to the story than we are seeing and hearing. Just be careful what you tell him for now, okay?

Tony glared at Steve, like he fucking couldn’t tell his own dad from an imposter. He didn’t say anything, but turned to walk back to the lab. 

Steve stayed put, sighing as he watched Tony sulk away. “Jarvis?” 

“Yes Captain Rogers, what can I do to assist you?” 

“Make sure Howard doesn’t get on the same floor that Peter is on, make a restriction or something. Just don’t let him near Peter.” Steve said, anxiety rising again.   
“I have activated the protocol and have sent a notification to your phone. Is there anything else I can do to assist you?” Jarvis asked in his normal sing song tone. 

“That will be all, thanks Jarvis.” Steve stated, turning to head back to his floor. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tony was staring Howard down from every angle, trying to find any discrepancies in his real father and this supposedly fake father. He couldn’t find a single thing different!

“Is there something in my teeth or…” Howard said putting a hand up to his mouth. 

“Wha..? No, no, I’m just...I’m just still in shock that you’re here.” Tony fumbled. 

“No problem, Son. I’m just busting your balls.” Howard chuckled and clapped a hand on Tony’s shoulder. “Why don’t we go get some real food and chat over dinner, hmm? You’re buying though.” 

Tony chuckled, feeling relieved. “Sure, where would you like to go?”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They ended up going to a local Italian restaurant. Tony got the meatball sub special and Howard got the pesto parmesan chicken with a side salad. Things were going fine and they were chatting about local news, until Howard finally brought up the topic Tony was hoping he wouldn’t bring up. 

“So tell me about this little tater tot you have running around? What’s that like?” Howard asked taking a big bite of his chicken, forcing Tony to speak up instead of suffering in the awkward silence. 

Tony began to sweat nervously and moved his fork around his plate without looking up to meet his father’s eye. “It’s fine I guess, not actually that hard. He’s a good smart kid, I just wasn’t expecting this to happen so the last few days have been a mess.”

“How come I haven’t seen him around? Do you keep him in a cage or something?” 

“Wha..NO! He’s with Pepper in the safe bunker.” Tony blurted out before thinking about what he was saying. 

Tony straightened up after realizing what he said, but his father didn’t seem too phased by it. 

“Makes sense. I would have thrown you in a bunker too if I thought someone was attacking my family.” Howard shrugged, taking another bite of his chicken. 

The topic of Peter seemed to have blown over quickly which Tony was thankful for. They ended the night with a few glasses of wine and headed home. After exiting the car and heading up the elevator, Tony felt a poke in his side, making him flinch. Howard was grinning evilly and held a syringe with green liquid. Tony watched as the toxic looking substance disappeared into his body. 

Suddenly, Tony felt really really heavy and tired. His arms and legs felt like they weighed 500 lbs each. Before he could ask what the hell was happening, Howard morphed….into a tall dark haired Loki. With a flick of his hand, the elevator had stopped and the communications system was again under Loki’s control. 

Tony felt a wave of warmth cover his body and he could still hear everything, but his body wouldn’t obey his commands, it was like he was locked into a coma with all his cognitive functions still. He tried to yell for help, but couldn’t. Howard was now standing over him again, and hoisting him up over his shoulder and supporting him like he was still able to move. He moved his hand over his eyes to close his lids. He could hear the elevator ding open and the doors sliding open, but he couldn’t open his eyes now. 

Howard made them go to the common floor so everyone could see Tony, clinging to his father, supposedly drunk off his ass. 

“Looks like you two had a fun time.” Clint chirped. 

“Old man can still outdrink him even on his best days.” Howard chuckled. “Which floor do I need to go to to get this guy into bed?”

“You can just ask Jarvis.” Bruce spoke up, not looking up from his book. “He’ll take you directly to his floor. Bedroom is the first on the right down the hallway.”

“Alright fellas, it was nice meeting all of you. Holler if you need us.” Howard said kindly, guiding Tony back into the elevator. 

They made it to Tony’s floor and Howard dropped Tony like a sack of potatoes on the floor outside of the elevator. 

Loki walked briskly to Tony’s room and then to the next few rooms until he found what he was looking for. The locking mechanisms were no match for Loki’s magic and he easily opened Peter’s bedroom door with a flick of his wrist and scoured the room for the kid. 

Becoming frustrated with not finding him anywhere, Loki made his way back out to Tony and injected him with an angry looking red liquid. The liquid allowed Tony to speak but only in a whisper. His body was still paralyzed however, which made it even more frustrating of a situation to be in. 

“Where is the boy?” Loki demanded. 

Tony spit from where he lay on the ground, just barely able to make it to Loki’s chin. 

“I’ll ask one more time. Where. Is. The. Boy.” Loki asked, with the same venom in his tone. 

“Fuck you. Like I’d tell you.” Tony laughed. 

Loki, losing patience, walked up and grabbed Tony by the throat. “Tell me or when I find him, I’ll torture him until he can barely recognize you.”

Tony was beginning to turn blue from the lack of oxygen but never made a move to speak up. He would die for his kid. He wouldn’t give that bastard shit. 

“Well, since you aren’t going to give him willingly, I have no use for you.” Loki sighed. 

The grip around Tony’s throat grew tighter and his vision and hearing began to slowly fade. It was weird, he thought he would have had that “life flashes before your eyes” moment, but that never came. Tony’s mind just went to meaningless things like, “Did I remember to send that email to so-and-so?” or “When was the last time I had washed my favorite pants?” Life was just a bunch of what-ifs or did I do these. 

Just before Tony slipped unconscious from the lack of oxygen, he saw a flash of red and then..nothing. Just blackness. It was quiet and there was nothing. 

Tony came to, first with his sight, and then with his hearing. He could see a blurry figure sitting on top of his chest in a red jumpsuit. Small and light. Next, ever so slowly, he could hear the wails coming from the being. Peter. His kid. 

“DADDY! WAKE UP DADDY! WAKE UP DADDY! WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!!!!” Peter screamed. 

Tony had to adjust to the sight for a minute because Peter was just screaming and pounding on his chest with his eyes closed. Pepper was laying on the ground in a pool of blood about 10 feet away. And Loki. Well, Loki was basically “cocooned” in spider webs. It looked more like an explosion occurred rather than the normal nice neat structure Peter was able to eject from his web canisters. 

Tony lifted his head and grabbed onto Peter’s arm. Peter’s immediately stopped crying and looked at Tony like a deer in the headlights. Not 0.2 seconds later, Peter was sobbing again and clinging to Tony for dear life. Tony managed to get himself upright and scooched his way over to Pepper who was still unconscious. There was blood all around her head and a large gash down the middle of her head to her right ear. 

Tony called Jarvis to get the team for help, but Jarvis just responded with “Sir is still sleeping, he wishes to not be disturbed for a few more hours.” Tony realized that Loki must have hacked the system again and programmed an automatic response for the rest of the team. 

Tony unlatched Peter from his neck and held him out in front of him so Peter was looking directly into his eyes. “Peter baby, I need you to be big and strong and help us right now. Jarvis isn’t working so I need you to take the stairs and go get Bruce and anyone else you can round up. You have to hurry because Pepper is really hurt, okay?”

Peter sniffled and managed to wipe his tears while he toddled to the stairs. Tony laid his head down on Pepper’s chest and could hear normal breathing sounds but a weak heartbeat. Her head was still bleeding out. Tony took off his shirt and ripped it into two large pieces to wrap around the wound. Just as he was finishing wrapping the second makeshift bandage around her head, the stairwell doors burst open and the team was rushing in. Bruce and Nat ran over to Pepper and got her on a gurney before rushing her back down the stairs to the medibay. Everyone was running around frantically and Tony’s head was spinning. Thor and Clint were taking care of the Loki situation and Steve came in holding a crying Peter on his hip. 

“We got you Tones, everyone is going to be fine. You’re going to be fine.” Steve said crouched down in front of Tony. 

Tony held out his hands for his boy and Peter immediately latched on. Peter nuzzled back into Tony’s neck and slowly started to calm down. 

Tony held Peter out in front of him again to get a good look at him. “That’s my big strong boy.” Tony smiled.


	10. Tony is a Good Daddy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone. I understand that I said I would be dedicated to this work unless I was dead or dying but I think that extends to family/friends as well. I lost my mom in May and it really messed with my head. I appreciate the time I had off to heal and I am finally ready to start writing again. Thanks for all the support! You guys are really awesome for keeping up with the work!

Tony had woken up in the medibay with Pepper in the bed next to his. She was still unconscious or maybe just sleeping but Tony couldn't tell. He definitely did not need to be here but Bruce insisted that it would make Pepper feel better that he was there with her and that Bruce could watch over him as well. He slowly got up and threw his legs over the edge of the bed to head to the bathroom. Just as he was grabbing his IV stand, Bruce walked in. 

“Hey, look who’s finally up. How are you feeling? Bruce asked, helping Tony untangle himself from all the wires and IV lines hooked up to him. 

“Still fine, Big Guy. Can I take these wires and what not off me yet?” Tony asked, seeming to re-tangle himself as soon as he took a few steps. 

Bruce checked his watch and decided it was fine that Tony be unhooked from the monitors and IV lines. Tony quickly used the restroom and made his way back out to Pepper. Bruce was writing down all her vitals and looking over her charts. 

“How is she doing?” Tony asked anxiously. 

“She’s taken a pretty good hit from Loki. She has a concussion and a broken arm, but Peter actually ended up protecting her some with his mess of webs that ended up on everything in the room. He seemed to have had a reflexive web bomb attack like the ones you guys made in the lab. Except this one is natural and came from just him when he screamed, he said. I didn’t actually know he could do that but I think it’s a self-defence mechanism.” Bruce shrugged. 

“Is she still unconscious or just asleep?”

“She’s just sleeping. I gave her some accelerated healing tonic and some pretty potent sleeping medicine to help her body heal. I figured it would be a lot easier to just sleep through the majority of the healing than be awake for it all.” Bruce smiled, clapping a hand on Tony’s shoulder. 

Tony just turned back to stare at Pepper trying to keep the tears from entering his eyes. He hurt HIS Pepper. Well, Loki did, but he should have been there to protect his family. 

Just as soon as he was about to lose it, Natasha walked in the room and spooked him, letting out a yelp. 

“Hey Tony. Feeling better?” She asked.

“Much. Where’s Peter?” Tony questioned, remembering he had his kid to worry about too. 

As soon as he mentioned Peter’s name, a naked baby came sprinting around the corner giggling hysterically into Tony’s legs. Tony couldn’t help but laugh at the scene as Clint and Steve soon followed holding a diaper and wipes. 

“Sorry Tony, we were trying to change him before we brought him down to you.” Steve said guiltily. “To be honest, he’s quite fast for a 2 year old.”

Tony just smiled down at the naked kid clinging to his legs and reached down to pick him up. “Okay, no peeing on me, but you can be naked until we get back up to your room to change you. Deal?” Tony asked. 

Peter just giggled and put his head on Tony’s shoulder and stuck his thumb in his mouth. Everyone seemed to coo at the two of them. Tony put on his meanest glare he could muster but he was still partly smiling from Peter’s appearance. 

Tony turned back to check on Pepper one more time before leaving to get Peter dressed and himself a cup of coffee. 

Peter seemed to be clinging on extra tight right now and Tony felt sorry for the kid. Having to go through another death of a close loved one would have really wracked his little body, so he didn’t blame him for slightly choking him on their way to his room. 

As suspected, Peter whined when Tony put him down on the bed, but Tony was quick to shush him. 

“Shh, it’s okay buddy. I’m not going anywhere. Just going to get you all snuggled up in some comfy PJ’s to relax in, okay?” 

Peter’s lip quivered only slightly before he nodded and braved the dressing. Soon enough he was koala clinging right back into Tony’s arms as soon as he was dressed. They made their way to the kitchen for something to eat before heading back to Pepper’s bedside. 

“Whatcha feeling hungry for kiddo?” Tony asked, opening the fridge to see the options they had to choose from. 

Peter didn’t even lift his head up to look into the fridge. He just kept his head on Tony’s shoulder and sucked on the pacifier that was shoved into his mouth. Tony waited a moment to see if he was going to answer, but it didn’t seem likely, so Tony just picked out a variety of things that hopefully Peter would eventually nibble on. 

“Alright bud, I’m going to put you down in your high chair so we can have our lunch now.” Tony said as he started to deposit Peter into his chair. 

As soon as Peter left Tony’s side, he started to scream bloody murder. Tears immediately poured from his eyes as he frantically tried to climb out of the chair and back into Tony’s arms. 

“No! P’ease ‘Ony. Don’t leave Pe’er!” Peter sobbed. 

Tony was quick to pluck him out of the chair and cradle the baby. 

“Shh Peter, I’m not going anywhere. I promise. I’ll be right here.” Tony sighed, feeling absolutely gutted from Peter’s reaction. “How about you sit on my lap and you can help me finish this yummy plate of cheese and fruit, okay?” 

Truthfully, Tony was not hungry at all, but he had to be a good influence and hope Peter would take a few bites at least. Peter thankfully nodded and slowed to sniffles pretty quickly. Tony was pretty impressed with himself for getting Peter to eat just about an entire banana with a few pieces of cheese. 

Happy enough with the food progress, Tony made his way back down to the medibay with Peter on his hip and a cup of coffee in his other hand. Same as before, Pepper had not moved, which worried Tony a little bit, but he trusted Bruce, so he tried to keep that anxiety at bay. 

He pulled up a chair and sat with Peter and his coffee until Pepper decided to wake up. Peter had dozed off about 15 minutes into waiting and was currently curled into a little cocoon that Tony had made with a leftover blanket from his bed from earlier. About 2 hours later, Bruce had come back around to check her vitals.

“Hey Bruce, how much longer do you think she’ll be out for?” Tony asked trying to hide the anxiety in his voice. 

“Don’t worry Tones. She should be waking up in the next half an hour or so. I wanted to make sure she was out of the worst of the pain before waking her up.” Bruce explained. 

Tony decided to scroll around on his phone while he waited for Pepper to wake. Just as Bruce had said, Pepper started to stir not less than half an hour later. The minute she did, Tony was leaned over onto her bed holding her hand while holding Peter on his hip. At first Tony thought she was going to fall right back to sleep, but she peeped open one of her eyes to see who was holding her hand without blinding herself from the bright lights above. 

“Hey Pep. How’re you feeling?” Tony asked, seeming to lean in even further. 

“Mmmm” She moaned, holding her head. “Could be better” She stated. “How’s the baby?” She nodded at the sleeping lump in Tony’s arms. 

“Pretty shaken up so I think he’s going to sleep hard for the next hour or so. Want to hold him?” Tony asked, already handing Peter over since Pepper’s good arm was already outstretched to grab him. 

As Tony expected, Peter did not stir at all from the transfer and instinctively nuzzled into Pepper’s side. She kissed the top of his head and yawned, signaling to Tony that he should let her rest some more and get her something to eat. 

He silently kissed her and exchanged a smile with her about the baby boy cocooned in the Ironman blanket before he turned to go order some food for everyone. 

______________________________________________________________________________

Tony ordered a feast for the lot of team members as a thanks for the support and help to protect Peter and Pepper and dealing with the situation without the press knowing. That was a feat in and of itself. 

Tony carried a bag full of pita, humus, and a mediterranean salad into the medibay for the 3 of them to munch on. When he entered the room, he saw Pepper blowing raspberries on Peter’s chubby cheeks while he squealed and giggled. 

“Well look who is finally awake huh” Tony said dropping the bag of food on the side table. 

“‘Ony!” Peter screamed, causing Pepper to wince from the sudden volume change and the concussion. 

Tony scooped Peter up and held a finger to his mouth to shush him. “Shhh buddy, we have to be nice and quiet for Pepper to get all better.” 

Peter had a quizzical look on his face which morphed into a determined one. He wiggled his way out of Tony’s arms as he watched the tot run off into the distance and down the hallway. Just as Tony was about to go after him and lead him back, Peter came running back with his fist clenched in a ball. 

Tony was about to ask what he was doing, but Peter answered his question by crawling onto Pepper’s bed and sticking a band-aid to her arm (where there was no sign of injury). The gesture made both adults laugh and they thanked Peter for helping Pepper “get better”. The little boy beamed a toothy grin plopped down on the bed next to Pepper. 

“Well now that Peter’s helped Pepper heal more, shall we eat some food before you two fall asleep on me?” Tony said as he noticed Peter’s yawns becoming more frequent. 

The mention of food perked Peter up, like it normally did with teenage Peter. Tony divided out portions of salad, humus and pita bread to each of them, thankful he ordered a finger friendly food for Peter. 

By the time the Peter was done eating, the adults had finished discussing what had exactly happened that morning/afternoon. 

“So how are you feeling now? I was hoping to get you into a real bed for tonight rather than a hospital bed. Plus, I think Peter won’t let me go so he’ll end up sleeping in my bed anyways.” Tony asked hoping to hear what he wanted. 

“Actually much better now. I was just going to ask Bruce if I would be able to get dressed and head up to your floor.” She said, smiling at the little boy who was staring back at her with big brown eyes. “How’s that sound little one? Should we have a slumber party?” She asked, poking his side. 

Peter squealed in delight and inched his way into Pepper’s lap. She held him and nuzzled his soft brown curls. Tony smiled at the sight of his favorite people. 

“Hold him for a sec, I’ll get Bruce to discharge you if he’s able.” Tony said walking to the lab he knew Bruce would be hunkered down in. 

As he turned the corner to the lab, he saw Bruce running frantically back and forth between station to station, sweat rolling down his head, and muttering random things to himself. Just as he was about to knock on the door to alert that he was there, Bruce stopped in his tracks and bent down so his face was meer inches away from one of his test tubes. Tony watched as the liquid inside turned from a light green to a fluorescent blue color that sizzled over the tube. 

“Holy mother of...it worked!” Bruce yelled. Almost tripping over his feet as he turned around to sprint down the hall. He stopped immediately as he saw Tony in the doorway, pure excitement on his face. “Tony! I figured it out I think! I think I figured out how to turn Peter back!” He yelled. 

Tony’s eyes widened and he went to say something but no noise came out. “Are you sure?? How??” He rushed out not expecting an answer for either really. 

“I have a few last tests to run on Peter’s cells but I think this will really work.” Bruce smiled. “Did you need something? Why did you come down here?” He asked, face morphing into a more concerned look. 

“Oh uhh nothing really, I was just seeing if Pepper could leave the medibay and sleep in my bed tonight.” He asked. 

Bruce checked his watch noting the time on Pepper’s file. “Should be fine. Just notify me if she has any major headaches or needs some pain meds for the arm.” He said not looking up and immediately scurrying around the lab again. “This all should be ready by tomorrow morning, so I suggest taking the night for yourselves and getting Peter ready for bed.” 

Tony turned to do just that. He had so many things running through his head that he felt like he was spinning. He got back to Pepper and Peter and noted that Peter looked especially tired already. He decided he’d share the news with Pepper once he got her settled upstairs. 

He grabbed his kid and settled him on his hip while he grabbed a wheelchair to wheel Pepper back to his floor. The whole way back to his floor he felt like he was vibrating. Peter seemed to take notice and was staring back at Tony with big brown eyes. He shoved his thumb into his mouth and continued to stare at Tony until they got to his floor. Tony put Peter down on his bed and wheeled Pepper to the bathroom. He grabbed her a set of clothes and a towel so she could shower. 

“Pep, I have some news.” Tony said, turning to finally face her. Pepper’s looked directly into his eyes waiting for him to continue. “Bruce figured out how to turn Peter back!” He almost screamed. 

Pepper smiled but Tony could tell something was off. She didn’t seem quite as happy as him. “What’s wrong?” He asked, excitement draining from his face. 

“Nothing’s wrong honey. This is fantastic news.” She said but Tony was unconvinced. 

He didn’t have to say anything for Pepper got the hint to continue explaining. “This really is great news, Tony. I’m just sure going to miss him like this, you know? Seeing you and him together, even over the last few days was really really special to me and I know he needs to be 15 again, but I don't know, I just will miss seeing him like this.” She said eyes almost becoming cloudy with tears. 

Tony took a minute to register what she had said. He didn’t think about it like that but now that he was, he was going to miss baby Peter as well. 

Without showing that he was overthinking the situation, he gave a generic response that seemed to satisfy Pepper while he quickly left the room so she could shower and get ready for bed. 

Now that he was alone, well, alone with Peter who was entertaining himself by rolling around on the bed and plopping down on his bum every once in awhile, did Tony actually think about what this meant. Sure he was happy Peter would be turned back to his normal age and be able to continue his life, but he really was going to miss this little munchkin. He noticed Peter’s diaper hanging dangerously low and went to change him. Peter was starting to get a rash from sitting in his mess for so long and Tony had to go search for the diaper cream to hopefully stop the rash from spreading. 

After Peter was in a clean diaper, Tony decided to try and explain the situation to Peter and hopefully have him understand what was going to happen. 

“Peter buddy. Can you look at me?” He asked, voice unsure. Peter turned from playing with a few wooden blocks to look Tony in the eye. “I have some news to tell you” He began. “Bruce found out how to make you big again” he said, voice hitching slightly before he cleared it and continued. “Tomorrow morning bruce is going to make you a big boy again, how does that sound?” He asked. 

Peter stared back at Tony and Tony could tell he was trying to figure out what that meant exactly. “Pe’er be a big boy?” He asked?

“Yes Peter, you’ll be 15 years old again. Isn’t that exciting?” 

Peter sat for a few seconds before turning his attention back to his blocks. Tony sighed, thinking Peter didn’t understand the situation exactly. But Peter turned back after a few seconds and crawled into Tony’s arms and nuzzled into his chest. Tony was embarrassed to say that his eyes quickly filled with tears but he relished in the moment. 

Peter looked up and smiled at Tony with his big toothy grin. Tony smiled back down and kissed his kid’s forehead before Peter put his head back into Tony’s chest.   
Tony heard the water in the shower shut off and knew Pepper would be out in a few minutes. As he was about to set Peter back down to get some clothes on for bed, but the words that came out of Peter’s mouth shocked him into becoming a statue. He couldn’t even breathe for a few seconds before he cleared his throat and looked down at the kid. 

“What did you just say?” He asked unsure. 

Peter was still snuggled up into Tony but turned his mouth out of his chest so Tony could hear him better. “Said ‘ou a good daddy ‘Ony”. 

Pepper came sauntering out of the bathroom and saw her boys on the bed. Tony was white as a ghost but chalked it up to being tired from the day. Tony turned to her and smiled and the color slowly came back to him. He settled Peter in the middle of the bed with Pepper on one side of him and himself on the other. Tony was so starstruck from the words Peter had said that he was sure he was never going to sleep again. Next thing he knew, Pepper was leaning over to kiss him goodnight. 

All they heard was a little “ewwww” from the burrito baby under the covers. They laughed at the little boy and both kissed him goodnight before turned over to their respective walls to try and sleep.


	11. Age Up

Pepper was the first to wake up. Her arm was sore and she decided to take some tylenol to try and reduce the pain a bit while she got breakfast started. 

Soon enough she could hear Peter’s bare feet pattering down the hall to the kitchen where he found Pepper cooking. She turned around from the sink to see a fluffy headed Peter trying to make his way up onto the island stool. She quickly came around the side to help him up but scooped him up instead to bring him to the living room floor to change his diaper, which threatened to fall off right then and there. She was thankful that Peter let her change him without much fuss and she was back to putting him on the countertop while she cooked. 

Peter seemed very interested in the pancake batter on the counter. When he thought Pepper wasn’t looking, he quickly dunked his fingers in the bowl and put them in his mouth. His face soured at the taste but tried to hide his reaction and his messy hand. Pepper saw exactly what happened but was going to give him the benefit of the doubt to come clean and tell her what he did. 

“Peppo?” Peter started. 

“Yes honey?” She asked, knowing exactly where this was headed. 

Peter held his offending hand up to show her he had snuck a taste of the batter. “This yucky. ‘Ou a bad cook!” 

Pepper almost burst out laughing. She was not expecting THAT as his response. But Tony came into the kitchen just as she was about to apologize to him. 

“Peter Benjamin! That is very very rude!” Tony fake yelled, coming around the island to kiss her and pour himself a cup of coffee. 

“Nu uh! Is the truth.” He shrugged back, slightly annoyed Tony was chastising him. 

“Well I guess Peter doesn’t want any of this yummy food for breakfast Pep, just you and me.” Tony fake teased. “Look at all this delicious food! Pancakes, bacon, eggs, and oh my, a fruit salad!” Tony exclaimed.

Peter dropped his head a little as he saw Pepper and Tony dig into the feast before them. It smelled so yummy too! Maybe he should apologize? Yeah that’s a good idea he thought. 

“Peppo?” He said in his smallest voice.

“Yes love, what’s the matter?” She asked. 

“I sowwy for being a bad boy.” He said, tears welling in his eyes. 

Pepper immediately gave in and rushed to his side to stop the tears before they started. “Oh it’s okay goofball. I forgive you. Would you like some of this yummy food we have here?” She asked, already moving to get him a plate. 

“Yes pwease.” Peter said in a soft voice. “Pe’er very hungwy.” He said, lifting his shirt to show his exposed tummy and rubbing it for emphasis. 

Pepper laughed at the gesture and put his plate on his high chair table. “Okay baby, here you go. Lots of yummy foods for you.” 

Peter squealed in delight and began munching on his pancake pieces. Pepper turned to Tony and asked how he slept last night. 

“Mmm fine. It took me a while to fall asleep from Peter rolling around until he found a comfortable position. Other than that, not very eventful.” Tony lied. In reality, he had a really horrible nightmare about Peter changing back to his real age. Something in the serum had altered Peter and an evil version of Peter was “made”. It gave him chills just thinking about it and he tried to turn his attention back to the food in front of him. 

______________________________________________________________________________

After breakfast, a quick diaper change, and watching Peter play with his lego blocks, Bruce came up the elevator to Tony’s floor. 

“Hey Tony.” He began. “I’m ready for Peter when you are.” 

Tony turned to Peter and saw how sad Pepper looked. He walked over to her, kissed her head, and grabbed her hand. “You know, Peter still loves you Pep. Even when he isn’t a baby, he really enjoys your company.” Tony said, trying to quell the tears threatening to fall. 

She looked back at the little boy on the floor and smiled. “I know, I just..” She sighed “I really liked seeing you with him. Like specifically how good you were taking care of him. I know you always thought you’d never be a family man, or have a family, but this was really special to me to have us all together like that. I love Peter no matter what age he is, but I am going to really miss this age of him.” 

Tony sighed. Pepper was right. He was going to miss this aged Peter like crazy. But he couldn’t leave Peter at this age. It wasn’t fair to him. He had friends. He had school. He had a regular life (well not regular but whatever). “Let’s get him to the lab for Bruce.”, was all Tony could say. 

They scooped the little boy up and flung him in the air to hear him laugh. Bruce smiled a sad smile and Pepper followed along behind, watching the interaction between her boys. 

“You can put him on that table.” Bruce said, pointing to a metal table that looked frigid to Tony. “You’ll have to take his diaper off or that will cause some discomfort when he grows to his normal size.” 

Tony quickly undid the diaper and placed Peter on the icy table, causing the little one to scream and try to cling to Tony. 

“Can I sit with him on the table?” Tony asked anxiously.

“Yes, you can. This is an injection so there shouldn't be any problem with you holding him. Once he begins to grow though, you may want to shift him so that he’s the only one on the table for your comfort and his.” Bruce said. 

Tony nodded and held the naked boy on his lap waiting for Bruce. “So how is this going to work exactly?” 

“Well, the tests I ran worked perfectly and I was able to watch Peter’s cells grow, reproduce, and die the amount that they should over a 13 year span with this accelerated aging serum.” Bruce said, hooking up the wires to Peter’s head and cleaning the area where the injection was going to go. “Ideally, Peter will be within 6 months of his original age and we can troubleshoot from there when we need to.” 

Tony nodded again, not verbally replying. He was scared. Actually he was beyond scared. He wanted Peter back to normal, but he didn't. He wanted this life with him. He wanted this life with Peter and Pepper. He wanted to feel that severe anxiety when he couldn’t find Peter or when Peter was crying. He wanted to feel needed. More than 15 year old Peter needed him. But before he knew it, Peter was crying and Tony turned to watch the blue liquid drain into his boy. He should have not looked at that moment because now he felt like he was going to pass out and puke all at the same time. But he had to be strong for Peter. He had to hold on and hope that everything was going to be alright. 

Peter’s eyes slowly shut, scaring Tony who looked over to Bruce for reassurance. Bruce nodded and continued scanning Peter’s brain. They both watched as the liquid inside the boy began to glow and move its way through Peter’s vessels. Soon enough, Peter’s features slowly began to morph, but so slowly that Tony wasn’t sure if it was actually happening or if it was from the overwhelming blue color that could be seen pumping through the boy’s body. But yes, it was working. Peter’s legs and arms were longer and his face changed so that his eyes weren’t so ungodly big. But as soon as the changes seemed to start, they stopped. At first Tony thought that was normal, but then Bruce was over Peter’s body measuring body parts and comparing them to what he had calculated. At this point Tony knew something wasn’t right. Bruce was rifling through his calculations and data and muttering things to himself. 

“What’s wrong?” He asked, voice slightly crackling. 

“Well it worked, but not completely. It should have made him grow like 9 years more than he did.” Bruce said, looking over his calculations once again. “If these measurements are final for his body extremities, he’s only around 6 years old right now.”

Tony looked over at the little boy on the table. “Well shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the love everyone! Here's another shorter chapter to tide you over!


	12. Risk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter's been aged up...well....partially.

Tony moved closer to the lifeless body on the table. It still looked just like Peter, but his features were more pronounced. His eyes didn’t seem to be as big and his baby fat had reduced considerably. He was still small though. Smaller than any 6 year old Tony had ever seen, which was very few, but still. Tony would have guessed that the small child in front of him was no more than 4 years old. 

“Petey?” Tony began, inching closer and rubbing his hand through the soft brown curls. 

The boy didn’t move and that scared Tony. He turned to Bruce to voice his concern, but Bruce spoke up knowing what Tony was going to ask. 

“He’s just sleeping Tones. I wanted to make sure that he wasn’t in pain when the transformation started. Believe me when I say that growing impossibly big or even through a small transformation is not easy and painless.” 

Tony nodded, unable to find words to respond with. But just as he was going to ask how long it would take for Peter to wake up, he heard a whine come from below. 

Slowly, Peter’s eyes opened, and he was shielding his eyes from the bright light above. His eyes adjusted to the lighting and he was able to make out the figures standing over him. But what caught his eye was his hand. It was bigger! But...not as big as it used to be.

He sat up with the assistance of Tony and looked down at his feet. Noticing he was naked, he covered his privates with his hands and Tony took that as his cue to grab a gown to drape over him. 

Once covered, Peter finally spoke up. “Dr….Dr. Banner?” His voice was squeaky and dry. “How come I’m still little?” He asked, concern in his voice. 

“I’m not sure Peter. I calibrated the serum to age your cells appropriately. I’m not sure why it didn’t work completely. I’ll have to run some tests and see where my calculations were off, but this is a great start! Now that we know we can age you, the new serum should come together quickly.” Bruce exclaimed, already moving around the lab grabbing different vials and ingredients. 

After realizing that Bruce wasn’t going to explain anything further, Tony decided to take Peter back to his floor to get some food into him and his kid. Pepper would be waiting there as well since she wasn’t keen on watching Peter age up. 

______________________________________________________________________________

When they got back to Tony’s floor, Tony was surprised to see Pepper sitting at the table in the kitchen gazing out the large window that overlooks the city. When she heard them approaching, Tony could see her shoulders visibly deflate and she turned around expecting to see Tony and his 15 year old intern. 

She was taken aback when she realized that Peter wasn’t a baby anymore, but rather a really really small child. 

“What happened? Why didn’t it work?” She asked, walking over to observe Peter. 

“Well it did, but something was off on Bruce’s calculations and he has to go back over his notes to see what's wrong. So Peter’s like 6 years old temporarily.” He said nonchalantly. “I’m going to fix us something to eat for lunch, did you want something?” 

Pepper shook her head. “I think Steve left some meals for you in the fridge though for you and Pete. He seemed really concerned that he wasn’t getting the proper nutrients.”

“Well that’s Rogers for you.” He said opening the fridge. “Let’s see, we have tuna fish casserole, vegetable enchiladas, and spaghetti with a side salad. What sounds good to you Pete?” 

When Peter didn’t answer right away, Tony turned to him to see the little boy wiggling around and holding his crotch. Uh oh. 

“Do you have to go to the bathroom, Peter?” Tony asked hurriedly. 

Peter’s cheeks turned a crimson red and he desperately shook his head. 

Tony was so thankful that Peter was at least potty trained and that he didn’t have to clean up any more messy diapers, but if he didn’t hurry, he’d be cleaning up a wet and crying child. 

“Okay, okay, let’s go quick.” Tony grabbed his hand and basically dragged the boy down the hall. Peter must have had to go pretty bad because not once while he was being dragged to the bathroom hid his hand leave his crotch. 

As they were entering the bathroom, Peter whispered, “Mr. Stark, I dont think I’m going to make it.” 

Tony’s eyes grew wide and he picked Peter up under his arms as he sprinted the last few feet. “Just hold on one more second Petey, we’re almost there.” 

Thankfully Peter was still in the hospital gown, so Tony was able to just push it aside like a window curtain before the floodgates broke. Peter physically deflated on the toilet and let out a huge sigh of relief. Realizing he was being watched by Mr. Stark did he start to blush again. Tony took that as his cue to leave the room and get the kid some clothing. 

But what was he going to wear? All his clothes were either way too big or baby sized. And he was not going to sacrifice any more of his t-shirts, even if Peter was potty trained now. Struggling with the decision, he went to Peter’s room to grab one of the clean shirts Peter had left here. At least it was smaller than his own shirts. As for pants and underwear, he’d either have to go commando, or wear a pull-up while stuff was ordered for him. 

Tony walked back to the bathroom to see if Peter was done to find the small boy on the countertop washing his hands. ‘Hmm I’ll have to get a stool for him to stand on to even reach the faucet’, Tony thought to himself. 

Once Peter was finished and the crisis averted, Tony brought up the pants situation. 

“Peter?” He knelt down in front of the small boy. “I’m ordering you some clothes that will fit, but for now you will just have to wear one of your old T-shirts. We don’t have any pants or undies for you, so do you want to go commando or do you want to wear a pull-up until the supplies arrive?”

“No diaper, pwease”, was all he squeaked out. 

“Okay no problem bud. Your new clothes should be here in a few hours.” Tony said gesturing for them to go back to the kitchen to eat lunch. 

_________________________________________________________

After lunch, the three of them went to relax on the couch. While Peter was rummaging through the toy box, Pepper took the opportunity to talk about Loki. 

“So what did ever happen to him? Last thing I knew, Loki was gone and we were dealing with Peter again like nothing happened.” 

To be honest, Tony had pretty much forgotten about that whole situation. He knew Clint and Natasha had carted him away to interrogate him, but he hadn’t heard if anything came from it yet. 

“I’m not sure yet. I’m sure by the time the rest of the team get their reports in and S.H.I.E.L.D get their shit together, we’ll know.” He said, eyes on Peter. 

Pepper “hmmed” and turned her attention back to Peter as well. Except, Peter came back to the couch empty handed and plopped down on the couch next to Tony. 

“What’s the matter bud? Nothing sparks your interest?” Tony asked.

“No, all those toys are for babies.” Peter sighed. 

Tony walked over to the box and started digging through to see if Peter maybe missed something. Sure enough, he saw that all the toys were made for newborn to 3 year old children. Mostly blocks, chewy toys, and stuffed animals. 

“Jar, send someone over to take this box of toys to be donated and then I’ll send you a new list of toys to be bought.” 

“Noted, sir.” Jarvis pipped up. 

Tony grabbed his Starkpad and turned to Peter. “Want to help pick out some new toys for yourself, buddy?” 

Peter’s eyes lit up like he had just won the lottery. “Yes, yes, yes, yes!” He practically screamed. 

As they were going from page to page of toys, Tony took note that Peter was ordering a lot of stuff made for teens or young adults. No wonder this kid was basically a genius at 15. A lot of the stuff Peter ordered was science or tech based, which made Tony kind of proud. But one thing that made him quirk an eyebrow at was a generic looking small Nerf gun. Like out of all the cool and weird things he ordered, Peter could have built this thing with his eyes closed from garbage scraps. 

‘Maybe Peter just really wanted one and never had a chance to have his own or play with them when he was younger? Who knows.’ Tony put the thought aside as he sent the list to Jarvis and turned on the TV for the three of them to relax finally. 

About an hour into a movie, both Peter and Tony had dozed off, leaving Pepper the opportunity to again, snap a few pictures, and also get some of her own work done. After all, she still had to run an entire company. 

After another hour of snoozing, Peter began to stir. He looked over and saw Tony sleeping on the other side of the couch, mouth wide open. He slipped off the couch and went to the bathroom and then to wander around Tony’s floor looking for something to do. It was weird how bad his ADHD was affecting him right now. Was this what it was like when he was a little kid? He can’t remember exactly. 

After roaming from room to room that he had access to, Peter decided that he was too bored so he went to the common floor to see if anyone was around to play with. 

After the elevator doors opened, Peter found Clint and Steve watching tv. Hearing the elevator doors, they both looked over to see a slightly bigger Peter dressed in an oversized t-shirt wander over to them. 

“Hiya sport. Whatcha up to?” Steve asked when Peter stood in front of them. “I see Bruce got the aging process started for you.” 

Peter smiled and crawled up onto the couch next to Steve, who was surprised when Peter crawled into his lap so he was looking directly into Steve’s eyes. “Mm borrreeedddd” He drew out.

“Well what would you like to do?” Clint asked, getting invested into the conversation. 

“Play!” Peter screamed, causing Steve to cover his ears and Peter to almost fall onto the floor. 

“What are we playing?” Thor boomed, causing Steve to once again cover his ears. 

“Hopefully something that requires indoor voices” Steve replied. 

“Well we can go shoot arrows on the practice range.” Clint piped up.

“No, no we will not.” Steve quickly added. “That is too dangerous for a little kid like Peter.” 

“I mean, he’s technically almost 16 years old.” Clint shrugged. 

“Yes, but currently, he’s in the mind and body of a...4 year old…?” Steve questioned. 

“I’m a big boy.” Peter added, holding up 4 fingers on one hand and two fingers on the other. 

“Yes, what a big boy you are, but still too young to play with dangerous weapons.” Steve stated. “How about we play a board game?”

“Game!” Peter screamed and then blushed when Steve gave him a stern look about the volume levels. 

“Alright, a board game it is. What one should we play? We have just about every game imaginable so pick away.” Steve added. 

“Do we have Risk?” Peter asked?

“We do! But will that be too difficult for you to play?” Steve asked. “It’s rated ages 10+.”

“I’m smart.” Peter added making the adults chuckle. 

________________________________________________________________________

They were a little over halfway through the game and tension was high. Steve believed that he should be winning because he had the most experience with “war” type situations. Thor was in 3rd place behind Steve. Peter was somehow winning, smiling to himself with a juicebox in one hand. Clint was losing. Bad. Like almost conquered except for one or two locations. 

Peter was having a lot of fun, until he realized he had to go to the bathroom. Curse his tiny bladder and the 3 juice boxes he already finished. Everyone was so invested in the game that no one realized the persistent wiggling from the boy. Or if they had, they just figured Peter was self soothing his ADHD by constantly moving around. 

Peter was about to excuse himself but Steve had just taken control of one of his territories and he was close to losing another. He put the bathroom emergency to the back of his mind to formulate a new strategy to ensure he wouldn’t lose another territory in the next few turns. Satisfied with his moves, his turn was over and he was brought back to the situation at hand. Only now, he didn’t have time to react because his body already chose for him. His hand moved to his crotch to try and stem the flow before he gave up and accepted his fate. His face burned red and he could feel his entire bottom become wet from where the pee was pooling on the chair. He tried to tug his oversized shirt further down his body but it was no use. The damage was done. Peter was so mortified by what had happened that he didn’t even realize that it was his turn again and everyone was staring at him to make a move. 

He quickly took his turn, not paying attention to his move and lost a territory to Clint, who was overjoyed at the prospect of staying in the game. 

Each turn Peter took, he continued to lose territories because he was too invested in trying to conceal his accident. Everyone noticed the boy turn silent and was only taking a few seconds on each turn, but they chalked it up to him being bored with the game and wanting to move on. 

By the end of the game, Peter was dead last. Steve ended up winning and Clint managed to come in second place. Thor congratulated everyone on a good game and sourly made his way back to his room to mope about coming in 3rd place. Clint and Steve cleaned up the game and Clint brought it back to the game room while Steve cleaned up the juiceboxes scattered around the table. 

Steve then noticed Peter still sitting at the end of the table, head downcast. 

“Hey sport, that was a good game.” Steve said, trying to get the boy to look up at him.

Peter responded with a quick “You too”, still not looking up from his hands in his lap.

Steve crouched down to Peter’s height and asked if he was upset about losing the game because he realized something was not right. When he crouched down, he could see the pool Peter was sitting in his hands fiddling with the bottom of his shirt. Now he understood the problem. 

“Peter, did you maybe have an accident?” Steve tried to gently coax out of the little boy. 

Peter didn’t respond verbally but his cheeks flamed and tears began to slide down his face. He made just the smallest nod that Steve almost missed it. 

“Okay buddy, it’s not a problem. Accidents happen to the best of us.” Steve said, trying to get the boy to at least look at him. “I know it’s embarrassing but we should get you cleaned up and everything will be good as new, okay?”

Peter nodded and allowed Steve to help him off the chair and to the bathroom. While Steve ran a small bath for Peter to clean himself up, he went back to the kitchen to clean up the puddle. 

Clint found Steve wiping down the chair and came over to see what was up. 

“What spilled?” He asked. 

Steve gave him a sad smile. “Peter had an accident. That’s why he kinda shut down mid-game.”

“Aw poor kid. I didn’t realize he had to go even.” Clint said. “Where is he at?”

“He’s in the bathroom cleaning up.” Steve said, turning to clean up the rest of the kitchen.

“Oh okay. Do you want me to go check on him?” Clint asked, trying to help in some way. 

“No, I don’t think he’d appreciate having multiple people know what happened. If you want to finish cleaning up the kitchen for me, I can go check on him to see if he’s done.” Steve added. 

“Sure thing, I can do that.” Clint said, grabbing the cleaning supplies from Steve. 

__________________________________________________________________________

Peter sat rigidly in the tub. His head in his arms while he silently cried. Steve startled him with a knock on the door which made him yelp.

“Peter, buddy, are you okay in here? Do you need any help?” Steve asked in his gentlest voice. 

Without Steve’s super-hearing, he definitely wouldn’t have heard the little “Help pwease” come from the boy. 

He slowly opened the bathroom door to find a crumpled up little boy sniffling in the tub. 

“Oh sport. It’s okay, really. Everything is already cleaned up and we can get you into some new clothes.” Steve tried to soothe. 

“No more clothes.” Peter whispered. 

“You don’t have any more clothes?” Steve confirmed. “Did Tony order you more?”

Peter nodded. “Don’t know when they get here.” 

“Jarvis, what is the status of Peter's new clothes?” Steve asked. 

“Young Sir’s items have arrived 37 minutes ago and are waiting on Sir’s floor.” Jarvis sang. 

“I’ll be right back with some new clothes for you.” Steve said, turning to head to Tony’s floor. 

As the elevator dinged for Tony’s floor, Steve heard Tony mutter from the couch, still half asleep. “Peter, you can’t go on the elevator without me. I don’t want you out of my sight.” 

“Uhh Tony. Peter’s been on the common floor for like 2.5 hours already.” Steve said looking down at his watch. 

Hearing Steve’s voice, Tony shot up out of his sleep. “What? Where is he? What are you doing in here?” 

“Well, I’m here to grab Peter some new clothes.” Steve said, trying to not divulge the rest of the details. 

“Clothes? Why?” Tony asked. 

Steve sighed, he might as well tell Tony since he’s the one caring for him. “He had a little accident when we were playing a game. He’s getting cleaned up but he needed a new set of clothes to change into.”

Tony nodded in understanding. “Well I should come bring him back to my floor anyways. I want him to eat dinner soon.” Tony said, checking his watch also. 

“Why don’t you guys join us for dinner? I think Peter would like it. He seemed a little lonely today.” Steve said. 

“I’ll think about it.” Tony said. 

“If you come down in 45 minutes, the food will be ready and Peter will be cleaned up and hopefully settled down by then.” Steve added. 

Tony nodded and slumped back into the couch to check his emails and see where Pepper had gone. Steve took that as his cue to head back to Peter and get the boy into some fresh clothes. 

______________________________________________________________________________

Once dressed, Peter was in a lot better mood already. The rest of the team was slowly making their way to the kitchen/living room area to visit with Peter. Tony finally arrived and smiled at the scene of the couch cushions piled into a fort and Thor’s body half wedged into it. Clint was throwing marshmallows (as ammunition) at the fort and Peter was being a medic for a “dead” Bruce. Pepper had opted out of dinner with the team and insisted that she had too much to work on. Steve was watching fondly at the scene while he cooked at the stove. Natasha was sitting at the island bar, watching the scene unfold and giving narration to the battlefield in front of her here and there. 

Tony made his way over to Natasha and sat beside her and watched his family rough house for the next 10 minutes while Steve finished up dinner. 

They were all settled around the table, talking about their day, and making sure Peter was the center of attention. Peter’s goofy grin made Tony’s heart swell and he watched as Peter munched on his tofu pad thai. Tony was surprised he had such a good time at dinner and it made him realize how grateful he was for such a great team and family. 

The rest of the team settled to watch a movie after dinner (of Peter’s choice) and surprise surprise, he chose Star Wars. At least there were like 11 of them to go through so they didn’t have to repeat episodes super often. Peter smiled up at Tony who looked down and smiled at his kid. 

Yeah, this dad thing wasn’t so bad.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic and I am really only writing this because I keep getting frustrated when other authors don't update or finish their works after months of waiting. Any constructive criticism is definitely encouraged.
> 
> My plan is to post at least once a week to keep regular readers engaged. I PROMISE I will not abandon this fic unless I am dead or dying :p


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